T^^&i^' 






/if u^. 



^ 



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A most charming and instructive book for all now Jom-neying to the "Better Land." 

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The author of this work visited Europe in 1828 and in 1836, under circumstances which 
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THE AIMWELL STORIES. 

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THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. A New Edition. With a Supplementary 
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THE CHRISTIAN LIFE : Social and Individual. By Peter BAY^-K, A. :.I 

12mo. Cloth. $1.25. 

Conteiits. — PART I. State:ment. I. The Individual Life. II. The Social Life. 
Part II. Exposition and Illustration. Book I. Christianity the jBas/.v oj 
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Wilberforce; and the development of Philanthropy. IV. Budgatt; the Chrisliua 
Freeman. V. The social problem of the aije, and one or two hints towards its solution. 
Book II. Christianity the Basis of Individual Character. I. Introductory : a few 
V/ords on 3Iodern Doubt. II. John Foster. III. Thomas Arnold. lY. Thomas 
Chalmers. Part III. Outlook. I. The Positive Philosophy. II. Pantheistic 
Spiritualism. III. General Conclusion. 

Particular attention is invited to this work. In Scotland, its publication, during 
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elaborate review in his paper, the Edinburgh Witness^ and gave his readers to under- 
stand that it was an extraordinary work. The " News of the Churches^'''' the monthly 
organ of the Scottish Free Church, w^as equally emphatic in its praise, pronouncing 
it "the religious book of the season." Strikingly original in plan and brilliant in 
execution, it far surpasses the expectations raised by the somewhat familiar title, it 
is, in trutli, a bold onslaught (and the iirst of the kind) upon the Pantheism of Carlyic, 
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PATRIAPtCHY; or, tlie Family, its Constitution and Probation. Ey John 
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and '' Man Primeval," we have already issued four and five editions, and the demand 
still continues. The immense sale of all Dr. Harris's works attest their intrinsic 
popularity. The present work has long been expected, but was delayed owing to the 
author's illness, and the pressure of his duties as President of New College, St. John's 
V\"ood. AYe shall issue it from advanced sheets (a large portion of which have already 
been received) simultaneously with its publication in England. 

GOD REVEALED IN NATURE AND IN CHRIST: Including a Refutation 
of the Development Theory contained in the " Vestiges of the Natural History 
of Creation." By the Author of " The Philosophy of the Plan of Sal- 
vation." 12mo. Cloth. $1.25. 

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being specidcally controversial, its aim is to overthrov/ several of the popular errors 
of the day, by establishing the antagonist truth upon an impregnable basis of reason 
and logic. In opposition to the doctrine of a mere subjective revelation, now so 
plausibly inculcated by certain eminent writers, it demonstrates the necessity of an 
external, objective revelation. Especially, it furnishes a new, and as it is conceived, 
a conclusive argument against the " development theory " so ingeniously maintained 
in the " Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation." As this author does not pub- 
lish except wlien he has something to say, there is good reason to anticipate that the 
work will be one of unusual interest and value. His former book has met with the 
most signal success in both hemispheres, having passed through numerous editions 
in England and Scotland, and been translated into four of the European languages 
besides. It is also about to be translated into the llindoostanee touiiue. . (uu 



A WREATH AROUND THE CROSS; 

Or Scripture Truths Illustrated. By the Eev. A. Morton Brown, D. D. 
With :i RcconinicndatDry Preface, by John Angell James. Witli beautiful Tron- 
ti.-piece. IGuio, cloth, GO cts. 

KT This is a very interesting and valuable book, and should be in every house in the land. Its great 
excc\\i:ncc\s,\t7iiOf/in'Jics the cross of Chnst. It presents the lullowing interesting subjcets : "The 
Cross needed; The Way to the Cross; The Cross set up; Tlie sulTerings of the Cruas JMcdiation by 
the Cross; Life from tlie Cross: Faitli in the Cross; Submission to the Cross; Glorying in the Cross; 
The Cross and the Crown." No better book can be put iuto the liands of " inquirers after trutli. ' 

This is a beautiful volume, defending and illustrating the precious truths which cluster around tho 
atonement. Tliesc truths are set forth iu a lively and popular style. — I'liil. CJu Chronicle. 

3Iay it find its way into ever}^ Christian family, and be read by every member. — Ch. Secretary. 

The theme is the centre of all evangelical religion, both doctrinal and experimental. It is tlie ex- 
cellence of this work, that it keeps so constantly in view this grand instrument of salvation, that it 
might have been entitled a "walk," as well as a "wreath," around the Cross. — Iicli.[/ious Herald 

•* Christ, and Him crucified," is presented in a new, striking, and matter-of-fact light. The style is 
Birhple, without being puerile, and the reasoning is of that truthful, persuasive kind that " comes froni 
tlie heart, and reaches tlie heart." AVe wish this Christian classic a wide circulation, hoping that 
many, under its direction and influence, may be found "looking unto Jesus-" — jV. Y. Observer. 

A highly-approved work, issued in elegant style. The author presents the most important doc- 
trines of our lioly religion, in a form not only intelligible, but iu attractive lights, adapted to alkire the 
eye of faitii, and hope, and love- to the glorious objects revealed in the gospel. — riuL Ch. Jbscrver. 

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLA1\T OF SALA^ATiON : A Book for the 
Times. By an American Citizen An Introductory Essay, by Calvin E. Stowe, 
D. D. 12mo. cloth, G3 cts. 

* »* This is one of the best books in the English language. The Avork has been translated into sev- 
eral dillercnt languages in Europe. It has been republished hy the London Tract Society, and also 
ftdoptcd as one of the volumes of " Ward's Library of Standard Dlvinit.y." edited by Drs. John Ilar- 
ris, J. Pye Smith, and others. A capital book to circulate among young men. 

One of the most original and valuable works of recent publication. — A. Y. Christian Intelligencer, 

A useful book, written with great spirit and point. — FhiL Preshyterian. 

In many respects, this is a remarkable book. — X. Y. Observer. 

We have expressed our decided opinion as to the exalted merits of this transatlantic es3ay on the 
truth of the Gospel. AVe think it is more likely to lodge an impression iu the human conscience, iu 
favor of the divine authority of Christianity, than any work of the modern press, as it seeks an avenue 
to the human heart somewhat different from the ordinary mode of approaching it. — London MetJi. 2Iag. 

It is logical, both in its arringement and in its reasonings. It is the work of a clear and vigorous 
thinker It proposes to solve these two questions, — Is C hristianity true f and, What is true Chris' 
tianity f Few volumes have issued from the American press that bear the stamp of originality and 
profound thought so deeply imprinted on every irage.— Furitan Bee, 

Tliis is really an original book. Every sentence is pregnant witli thought, and every idea con- 
duces to the main demonstration. The various paragraphs are bound together as closely as the suc- 
cessive steps of a mathematical argument. At the same time, neither abstruseness vails the method, 
nor subtilty polishes away the power of the reasonings employed. Its conclusions come home with 
certainty to the business and bosom" of every man. The book is the work of a reclaimed scep- 
tic. — Edinburgh United Secession Magazine, 

Though written with great simplicit}^, it is evidently the production of a master mind. There is a 
force of argument and a power of conviction almost resistless. -^London Evangelical Magazine. 

The book before us is one of singular merit. As a piece of clear, vigorous, consecutive thinking, 
we scarcely know its superior. We would not hesitate to place it side by side with Butler's Analogy, 
merely as a specimen of close and unanswerable reasoning, while it is far superior with regard to the 
evangelical view which it gives of the plan of salvation. — Edinburgh Free Church Magazine. 

" The x>resident of Knox College, Illinois,''' says, "I have just taken the senior class through tlie 
Philosophj'- of the Plan of Salvation. It is decidedly the best vindication of the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures against the assaults of infidelity, and one of the most useful class books which I have ever met." 

A Welsh minister, in Michigan, brought a copy from Wales. It has been translated into Welsh, and 
ia circulated broadcast over the hills, through the hamlets, and in the mines of his native land. 

li 




For the use of the alcove accurate and striking plate, from Agassiz and Gould's Zoology, the 
author is indebted to those distinguislied naturalists. 



S A C R F. D P H I L O S O P PI Y . 



GOD REVEALED 



PROCESS OF CREATION, 



AND BY THE 



MANIFESTATION OF JESUS CHEIST; 



INCLUDING AN 



EXAMINATION OF THE DEYELOPMENT THEORY 



CONTAINED IN THE 



'VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION/' 



BY 



JAMES BfWALKER, 

AUTHOR OF "PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF S ALJUeT^tp^yt.,, 



^^< '^■.. 




/" BOSTON: 



OOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
NEYf YOKK : SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN, 

115 NASSAU STREET. 

1855. 



NN2- 



Entered, according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1S55, l>y 

GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachus^Ut 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK ONE. 
CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS 33 

CHAPTER II. 

INTRODUCTORY — THE PRESENT POSITION AND BEARINGS OP THE ARGU- 
MENT STATED 19 

CHAPTER III. 

SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT FROM " FIRST THINGS." 28 

CHAPTER IV. 

EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS WHICH ESTABLISH THE DOCTRINE OF PRO- 
GRESSIVE ADVANCES IN CREATION FROM LOWER TO HIGHER SPECIES, 
AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED BY THESE FACTS 38 



iV CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER V 

PAGH 
ON UNITY IN THE CREATINa CAUSE, AND THE EVIDENCES THAT PHYS- 
ICAL FORCES AND LAWS HAVE BEEN USED AS INSTRU:MENTALITIES 
IN ACCOMPLISHING THE FINAL END IN THE SCHEME OF CREATION 62 



CHAPTER YI. 

ANOTHER VIEW OP THE EVIDENCE SEEN IN THE PROGRESS OF THE 
CREATION, RELATING TO THE ADAPTATION OP THINGS TO EACH 
OTHER, WHICH ARE NOT DEVELOPED OUT OF EACH OTHER, NOR 
CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER IN TIME AND SPACE 



CHAPTER VII. 

DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW 

OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONE SPECIES OUT OF ANOTHER SG 



CHAPTER YIII. 

CREATION AND CONTROL BY DIVINE AGENCY, AND SUSTENTATION AND 

GOVERNMENT BY LAW 113 



CHAPTER IX. 

TRANSITION FROM THE PHYSICAL TO THE SPIRITUAL, CONCERNING WHAT 
WE MAY KNOW OF THE FUTURE AND OF GOD, FROM THE CONSTI- 
TUTION OF THINGS, VIEWED IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAW OF 
PROGRESS 120 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK T W O . 

OF MAN AND HIS IlESPONSIBILITIES, CONSIDERED IN 

CONNECTION WITH DIVINE LAW AND DIVINE 

REVELATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



EXPOSITION OF THE NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW 15 1 



CHAPTER II, 

CONCERNING- THE MORAL LAW c Il4z 



CHAPTER III. 

UAN UNABLE TO RECOVER HIMSELF FROM DISOBEDIENCE, OR REDEEM 

HIMSELF FROM THE PENALTIES OF MORAL LAW 184 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LEGAL ASPECT AND PR/LCTICAL VALUE OF THE SACRIFICE OF 
CHRIST, AND ITS ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW OF PROGRESS AND 
THE CHARACTER OF GOD 188 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE MEANS AND METHODS OF RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE TO THE 
DIVINE LAW 199 



VI CONIENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 
THE ADAPTATIONS AND PROCESSES OF THE GOSPEL IN RESTORINa MAN 

TO IMPARTIAL REGARD FOR HIS FELLOW-MAN, THUS PRODUCING 

OBEDIENCE TO THE SECOND TABLE OP THE LAW 228 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN CHRIST CONSIDERED IN ITS RELA- 
TIONS TO THE FUTURE LIFE 245 



ADDENDUM. 

EXCURSUS ON HYPOTHESES; ESPECIALLY THE HYPOTHESIS OF PRE- 

EXISTENCE 262 



INTRODUCTION. 



All the Bridgewater Treatises aim to develop the 
central idea in Natural Theology — that design, appa- 
rent in the phenomena of creation, indicates an intelli- 
gent Designer. In the work of Chalmers some new 
strength has been added to the argument for the moral 
character of the Supreme Architect. These treatises 
are able and discriminating, each marching through a 
different province of science to the same grand conclu- 
sion. By a few these volumes will always be appreciat- 
ed ; but we fear little has been added by their publica- 
tion to the popular religious conviction of Christendom 
beyond what had been produced by the work of Paley. 
And, indeed, it is doubtful whether any work, predicat- 
ed solely upon the deductions of Natural Theology, 
can add much to the strength of the persuasion, pos- 
sessed in common by all men, that a Supreme Being 
exists and reigns over the universe. 

What the world needs, is not so much evidence of the 
existence of a Supreme Being, as evidence of the moral 
character of the Creator — evidence of the moral aim 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

and end of the Divine Plan — evidence not only ^^ that 
God isy'^ but also ^^ that he is a rewarder of those who 
diligently seek him,'' This has been the actual point of 
conflict between the unbelievers and the faithful in all 
the ages of revelation. 

Soon after the Bridgewater Treatises were published^ 
the book known as the ^^ Philosophy of the Plan of Sal- 
vation'' made its appearance in America, and was im- 
mediately republished in England. It intimated in its 
preface the opinion of its author, that the Bridgewater 
books did not meet the want of the tim.es. They did 
not answer to the great question which the inquiring 
reason of the civilized world propounds. Men might 
read them all, and go forth more skeptical in relation to 
revealed religion than before. The very fact that the 
vital question had not been discussed might indicate to 
the philosophic skeptic that it could not be maintained 
upon the basis of a sound philosophy, nor by the pro- 
cesses of rational induction. 

Deeply sensible, therefore, that the Bridgewater 
Treatises, whatever they might be in other respects, 
had failed upon the main issue, the author of the 
^' Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation'' aimed to do 
what they had not done — to identify the God of the 
Creation with the God of the Bible, and the first prin- 
ciples of Christianity with the canons of human reason. 
He aimed to show, by the same process by which the 
conclusions of Natural Theology are reached, that the 
Mosaic and Christian Dispensations are the work of the 
same Mind that planned and developed the Physical 
Creation. This is the question of the Christian Ages 



INTEODUCTION. IX 

— this the demand made upon the Christian thcists of 
our own time. 

That the Author did not misconceive the want of the 
times, nor fail in some measure to meet it, is evident 
from the fact, that his book is sold by thousands of 
volumes, while technical works on Natural Theology 
(Paley always excepted) live only in professional libra- 
ries. It is studied in many of the seminaries of Great 
Britain and America — ^has been translated into all the 
principal languages of the Continent — is about to be 
translated into Hindoostanee, and at the present time is 
extending its influence more widely than ever before. 

The success of his first volume has stimulated the 
Author to give to the public another volume — a second 
" Book for the Times'' — at a period when he thinks the 
state of the question in Europe and America calls for 
its circulation. 

Eecently, a series of essays have been written for the 
prize off*ered at Aberdeen, which includes both Nature 
and Eevelation in the same thesis. It is hoped that 
they may be books which will live ; but previous ex- 
perience in connection with the same prize awakens the 
fear that they may be able and formal discussions, like 
their predecessors, which will fail to awaken an interest 
in the public mind, or to attract the attention of in- 
quirers for truth ; and hence fail to promote by an ex- 
tended influence the honor of Christ and the spiritual 
good of men. 

We have here, therefore, a second treatise from the 
Author of the '^ Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation ]" 
not an introduction to the first book, nor a sequel, but 



X INTRODUCTION, 

a Comi}anion ; in which the argument of the previous 
work is extended and strengthened. The Supreme 
Being, as revealed in Nature and Eevelation, is ex- 
hibited, not only as the Author of the physical and 
moral systems of the universe ; but a chief and further 
aim of the volume is to exhibit the Unity of the Di- 
vine Plan, physical and moral, upon our planet, and the 
process through w^iich it has passed, and by which it 
is progressing to ultimate perfection. In this volume 
the unity of the physical and spiritual scheme of the 
Creator, as it has been developed in our world, we think 
is established ; and the final end of the whole plan of 
the mundane economy is shown to be moral in its na- 
ture, and the same as those revealed in the Christian 
Scriptures. 

To the skeptic, the candid inquirer, and the Chris- 
tian, we commend the book, hoping that, like its pre- 
decessor, it may interest and benefit many readers. 

^y^ A condensed statement of facts and principles 
is given in the first chapters of the work. This is done 
in order to the completeness of the book in itself — to 
give the general reader an apprehension of what is ad- 
mitted to be the present state of the discussion, and to 
furnish an intelligent introduction to the argument 
which follows. 



BOOK ONE 



" I EKYY NO QUALITY OF MIND OR INTELLECT IN OTHERS, BE IT GENIUS, 
POWER, WIT, OR FANCY ; BUT IF I COULD CHOOSE WHAT WOULD BE MOST 
DELIGHTFUL, AND, I BELIEYE, MOST USEFUL TO ME, I SHOULD PREFER A 
FIRM RELIGIOUS BELIEF TO EVERY OTHER BLESSING .* FOR IT MAKES LIFE 
A DISCIPLINE OF GOODNESS — CREATES NEW HOPES WHEN ALL EARTHLY 
HOPES VANISH — THROWS OVER THE DECAY, THE DESTRUCTION OF EXIST- 
ENCE, THE MOST GORGEOUS OF ALL LIGHTS — AWAKENS LIFE IN DEATH — 
AND FROM CORRUPTION AND DECAY CALLS UP BEAUTY AND DIVINITY." 

SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 



CHAPTER I. 

PKELIMINARY STATEMENT OF FIRST TRUTHS. 

In an argument deduced from the Light of Nature 
for the Being of God^ nothing can hh properly assumed 
in the outset except those first truths which are re- 
vealed in the human consciousness. The existence of 
Mind is implied in the act of thinking, and there are 
certain laws of mind which are implied in the process 
of reasoning ; and however men may differ about first 
hioivledgey or certain hiotvledge of things external to 
the mind itself, yet all agree that we must doubt the 
veracity — or rather, that we must affirm the fallacy — 
of sensation, before we can doubt the existence of 
phenomena external to the mind. 

I AM : — The external world is : — In all sane 
minds these elementary convictions exist ; and they 
are assumed in all processes of the reason. It is not 
possible for a man to act as though he doubted either 
the existence of self or of the external world. Men 
may adopt hypotheses which will lead them to pro- 
pound doubts upon this subject, but no man can act 



14 PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 

upon the supposition that such doubts are valid. "We 
can not think without being conscious of our existence ; 
we can not act without being conscious of motion and 
matter external to the self of the mind. The subjective 
and the objective — the me and the not^ me — are cor- 
related and co-existing intuitions^ revealed in the 
consciousness of all intelligent active beings. 

The mind is not only conscious of the existence of 
self, and the existence of the external world, but every 
mind affirms of itself that the external world — its 
forms and movements — are not dependent ii20on me. 
By this inter-action of the subjective and the objective 
the idea or notion of Cause and Effect is produced. By 
cause and effect, as thus perceived, we do not merely 
understand the succession of antecedent and sequence ; 
but properly, cause and effect : the effect being con- 
nected as a co7^sequence with its cause. 

That the idea of cause and effect is connate with the 
exercise of the reason, is manifest from several con- 
siderations. It is seen in the fact that men have 
universally, and in all ages, assumed that forms and 
changes in nature have a cause. Those who have 
assumed that matter is eternal, have yet assumed 
causation as precedent to the modifications of matter. 
Skepticism in relation to this elementary law of the 
reason is scarcely possible. Insanity often consists in 



P K E L I M I N A R Y STATEMENTS. 15 

assuming inadequate or absurd causes ; but this, of 
itself, shows that a first and necessary element of the 
reason consists in assuming adequate and rational 
causes for all perceived phenomena. Thus, whether 
in a normal or an abnormal condition, there exists in 
the human mind the elementary conviction of cause 
and effect ; and the normal or sane condition of mind 
is indicated by the assumption of adequate and ra- 
tional causes for the various forms and changes which 
the creation exhibits to the senses. 

By endeavoring to form the idea of an effect, or 
change of 'form, without a cause, every one may be con- 
scious of the intuitive character of the conviction of 
causation. We may vary the notion of an effect, and 
vary its name, but we can form no idea of an effect 
existing without an efficient antecedent of some sort. 
The conviction, then, that every effect is related to an 
adequate cause, is an elem^ent of mind so far that with- 
out it there can be no sane intellect. The correlation 
of cause and effect is a primary truth, the assumption 
of which lies at the basis of all processes of the reason. 

THE INQUIRY OF THE DISCUSSION STATED. 

These first truths introduce us into the field of 
inquiry, the exploration of which is proposed in the 



16 PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 

&st part of the following discussion. The process of 
the discussion may be such as to allow the most ample 
statement. Is the external world, as known to us, 
uncaused or self-caused .^ or is it the effect of a 
separate cause, adequate to the production of the per- 
ceived phenomena ? All the phases of the main 
inquiry are included in this — Is there a First Cause, 
adequate in power, intelligence, and goodness, to whom 
we must attribute the production of the phenomena of 
the universe, so far as known to us ? 

The idea of God, as revealed by the Light of 
Nature, can not be less than that of a cause ade- 
quate to the production of all the phenomena known to 
us. The true idea of God may signify more than this, 
because our knowledge of the universe is limited in 
extent, and in many cases our apprehensions of natural 
phenomena are inaccurate. The more discriminating, 
therefore, the examination of the parts, relations, and 
processes of created things, and the more comprehen- 
sive the induction of natural phenomena, the greater 
will be the probability of approximating, by con^ect 
reasonings, to a knowledge of the existence and char- 
acter of God. 

The testimonies, likewise, for the existence and 
government of the Supreme Being, will be strength- 
ened in proportion as we are able to derive the same 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 17 

conclusion from many different premises. The eduction 
of a general result from many conclusions logically 
accumulated is, perhaps, the highest and most satis- 
factory evidence that can be jiresented to the mind of 
man, in relation to the subject under consideration. 

" Organization implies law.'' This truth is conceded 
as the basis of all science. Whether it be argued that 
the law is coeval with the organization, or produces or 
governs the organization by a force of nature^ or by the 
will of God — whatever view is taken of the causal 
energy, still it is conceded as a tenet of human knowl- 
edge that organization implies law, by which the form 
and changes of the organism are governed. 

THE POnjTT OF BEGINNING. 

Eecent studies of the physical history of the earth 
have established the fact, that in the process of 
creation, either by the development or introduction 
of species, vegetable and animal life have advanced 
upon the scale of creation, from lower to higher forms. 
This fact points us to the first ascertained step in 
creative progress as the point where we should begin 
our inquiries. We shall gain some advantage by 
directing our train of thought in accordance with the 
^^ course of creation,'' as it rises from first to last 



18 PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 

things. If the footsteps of the Creator, proceeding 
from the vast obscure, become more visible when life 
dawns in organic forms upon the earth, then, by follow- 
ing those footprints, we shall certainly travel in the 
direction in which Creative Energy and Wisdom have 
proceeded ; and we trust we shall gather by the way 
satisfactory evidence of the existence and character of 
the Creating Mind. 

We assume, then, subjectively, the existence of 
mind, and of the primary laws which govern the 
reason ;— objectively, the existence of matter, and of law 
governing the changes of material phenomena. And 
we commence our inquiries with the facts which form 
the earliest reliable knowledge of the earth's history. 



CHAPTER II. 

INTRODUCTORY. 
THE PRESENT POSITION AND BEARINGS OF THE ARGUMENT STATED. 

The Ancients^ wlio assumed that creation from noth- 
ing was an impossibility^ did not infer therefrom that 
there were no gods. Many profound thinkers assumed 
that both Matter and Spirit had existed from eternity. 
"Whether, with Aristotle, they supposed the union of 
spirit and matter a necessity of things ; or whether 
they believed, as the Epicureans taught, that there was 
a Divine Mind separate from matter ; or with Plato, 
that the union of spirit with matter was a voluntary 
influx of the Infinite One, pervading the forms and 
producing the motions of matter ; still, in one view or 
another, the prevailing sentiments of the ancients was, 
that both Mind and Matter were uncreated entities. 

The Moderns have held a different opinion. With 
the exception of the school of Spinosa, and slight 
modifications of his views by men of more recent times, 
philosophers generally have adopted, and endeavored to 



20 THE PRESENT POSITION AND 

sustain^ the opinion that matter is a created substance. 
It is believed that this doctrine is taught in the Sacred 
Scriptures ; and hence an impression has prevailed, that 
skeptical opinions are encouraged by hypotheses all 
which do not accord with that interpretation of Gen- 
esis which teaches the creation of matter out of noth- 
ing by the omnific word of God. 

In our own times, the assumption that matter is a 
created substance is not held to be either so sacred or 
so important as it was formerly supposed to be. Some 
modern authors have endeavored to show that the 
creation spoken of in Genesis refers only to the existing 
order of things — the formation of matter into the 
various species of organized life. Others find, in the 
first verse of Genesis, an announcement of the creation 
of matter ao;es anterior to the formation of the oro:anic 
kingdoms of nature. This last opinion is at present, 
probably, the prevailing .one, sustained by more in- 
fluential names'*^' and by a better scriptural exegesis 
than any other. 

THE QUESTION WHETHER MATTER BE A CREATED SUBSTANCE 

NOT ESSENTIAL. 

On the subject of the creation of matter. Dr. Chal- 
mers is a good exponent of the views of those wi^iters 

* Buckland, Chalmers, Pye Smith, Hitchcock. 



BEARINGS OF THE ARGUMENT STATED. 21 

who seek data both in natural and revealed theology. 
This able theologian^ while he maintains that there are 
good reasons to support the opinion that matter is a 
created substance^, yet denies that the question is one 
of importance in the study of natural theology: — 
^^ The palpable argument for the being of God^ as 
grounded on the phenomena of visible nature^ lies not 
in the existence of matter^ but in the arrangements of 
its parts — a firmer stepping-stone to the conclusion 
than the mere entity of that which is corporeal to the 
previous entity of that which is spiritual. To us it 
marks far more intelligently the voice of a God^ to 
have called forth the beauteous and beneficent order of 
our world from the womb of chaos^ than to have called 
forth the substance of our world from the chambers of 
nonentity. "We know that the voice of God called 
forth both^ but it is one of those voices which sounds 
so audibly and distinctly in reason's ear. Of the other 
we have been told^ and we think needed to have been 
told, by Kevelations.'''-'^ He adds — " The question to 
be resolved then is, not whether the matter of the worldy 
but whether the present order of the world had a com- 
mencement." 

An American writer^ eminent in his own country, 

* Natural Theology, b. i. c, 5. 



22 THE PRESENT POSITION AND 

and not unknown in Europe/"" says — ^^We must con- 
fess at tlie outset^ that Geology furnishes no more 
evidence than the other sciences of the creation of the 
matter of the universe out of nothing ; but it does fur- 
nish us with examples of such modifications of matter 
as could be effected only by a Deity/' Thus good 
writers concur, that in the scientific argument for the 
being of God, the question concerning the eternity of 
matter may be set aside, as not essential to the 
strength or validity of their conclusions. 

Yet, if this question be held in abeyance, it is not 
thereby conceded that matter is an uncreated sub- 
stance. A position of uncertain value is not contested ; 
but it is never supposed that the waving of the discus- 
sion on this subject weakens the strength or affects the 
foundation of the evidence that there is a God who 
created and who governs the world. It is only sup- 
posed that it removes the basis of the argument from 
a more obscure to a more clear and firm j)osition — from 
the region of assumption and a priori argumentation 
to the premises of rational and a posteriori induction. 

OPINIONS AND DISCRIMINATIONS CONCERNING THE LAWS OF 

MATTER. 

The question concerning the laws of matter is more 
complicated and difficult than that concerning the 

* Hitchcock's Religion aud Geology, p. 162. 



BEARINGS OF THE A KGUME NT STATED. 23 

creation of matter. Tliis question in some form has 
entered as an element into the inquiries of all ages 
concerning the being of God. Some views of the 
nature of law, and of the place which the term 
claims in the argument, are defined ; hut much ob- 
scurity rests on this topic because of erroneous or 
imperfect definitions. It will be our aim in the pro- 
gress of this treatise to elucidate this subject. Mean- 
while, there are some things in the present state of 
opinions which it will aid us to notice, as introductory 
to future inquiries. 

In many writers of the skeptical school, such phrases 
as the ^^laws of matter'' and the ^^ nature of things'' 
have a significance of the highest import. In the es- 
timation of such authors as Le Compte and Mirabaud, 
these phrases designate natural causes adequate to the 
production of all the visible phenomena of ♦nature. 
Materialists of this class are understood to deny the 
existence of a personal God. This opinion some ex- 
pressly avow. Others, however, who profess to find in 
nature an adequate cause for all the forms and changes 
which matter assumes, yet introduce phraseology which 
recognizes a personal creating mind;-''" and it is prob- 

* The whole revelation of the works of G-od presented to our senses is 
a system based, from what we are compelledj for want of a better term, to 
call law; by wliich, however, is not meant a system independent of or ex- 



24 THE PRESENT POSITION AND 

ably but right to suppose that this johraseology gives 
their true convictions^ notwithstanding their theories 
and their logic seem to maintain a different conclusion. 
But^ although the naturalistic writers differ among 
themselves in regard to the existence of a personal 
God, yet all of them agree in finding a sufficient cause 
for existing phenomena in some pre-existing condition 
of nature, without the intervention of any power supe- 
rior to matter and its laws. 

The indefinite apprehension and use of such phrases 
as those referred to, has greatly retarded the progress 
of true philosophy.'*' That the laws of matter are as 
old as matter itself — that organic laws are as old as 
organization, no one doubts. But when organic laws 
are spoken of as causing organization, and the nature 
of things as giving a nature to things, effects are con- 
founded wdth causes, and the whole course of the 
reasoning is vitiated. 

Professor Whewell has made some valuable discrimi- 
nations between the laws of matter and the colloca- 
tions of matter — between the laws and the '^rules'' or 
^^adaptations'' observed in the relations and modus 
operandi of these laws. By the labors of the Bridge- 
elusive of the Deity, "but one which only proposes a certain mode of his 
working. — Sequel to Vestiges of Creation, 

* Sir J. Herschel's Address, 1 845. 



BEARINGS OF THE ARGUMENT STATED. 25 

water writers^ the argument has been cleared of many 
extraneous and unnecessary exczcrsc^. Admitting that 
hiw governs not only the movements, but that it is co- 
eval with the constitution of things, the evidences of 
a designing mind are found in the manner in which 
matter is located in time and space, and in the adapta- 
tion by which things are formed in combination with 
the laws of matter and the laws of life. The exist- 
ence of God is not argued so much from the mere 
existence, either of matter or law, as from the ap- 
parent design in adjusting the laws and forms of mat- 
ter, in such ways as that, by the interworking of the 
collocated economy, specific and valuable ends are 
produced. 

" The watchmaker did not give its elasticity to the 
mainspring, nor its regularity to the balance-wheel, 
nor its transparency to the glass, nor the momentum 
of its varying forces to the mechanism ; yet the whole 
is replete with marks of intelligence, announcing 
throughout the adjusting and forming skill of a 
maker, who had an eye on all these properties, and 
assigned the right place and adjustment to each of 
them, in fashioning and bringing together the parts 
of an instrument for the measurement and indication 
of time. Now the same distinction can be observed in 

all the specimens of natural mechanism. It is true 

2 



26 THEPRESENTPOSITIONAND 

that we credit the author with the creation and laws 
of matter as well as its dispositions ; hut this does 
not hinder its being in the latter^ and not in the 
former^ where the manifestations of skill are most 
apparent^ or where the chief argument for a Divinity 
lies/"- 

The foregoing extract is a good condensation of the 
opinions of modern writers on this point. The agency 
and wisdom of the Infinite Architect are seen^ not so 
much in the law of refraction^ or in the reflective sur- 
face of a lens^ or in the contractile structure of a 
muscle^ nor in the motive joower of osseous lever^ nor 
in the form of one or all of these ; but when the 
lenses and laws are adjusted in definite relations — 
when the contractile muscle moves the machinery in 
adaptation to external objects disconnected from the 
machine itself, and all these parts^ and processes, and 
laws are balanced and worked together as one particu- 
lar mechanism, correlated to many others in and out 
of the human system — from this collocation of parts, 
and adjustment of laws to parts, are deduced the 
agency, and wisdom, and goodness of the Divine 
Mind. 

Thus, while Theists hold that the existence of God 
may be inferred from the existence of matter and the 

* Clialmer's Nafc. Tlie. b. ii. c. 1. 



■I 



BEAKINGS OF THE ARGUMENT STATED. 27 

laws of matter, yet tliey take their main position where 
the reason grasps the material with clearer apprehen- 
sion, and where the argument rests upon the basis of a 
broader induction. 



CHAPTER III. 

SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT FROM FIRST THINGS. 

Although the question concerning tlie eternity of 
matter is held in abeyance by able theologians, and the 
argument deducible from the existence of the laws of 
matter is not so much insisted upon by others, yet, 
there is a testimony deducible from the existence and 
properties of first things which indicates the personal 
existence of Grod. 

To the minds of many, whose competency to judge 
in the case no one will doubt, there is much weight in 
the testimony for the wisdom and goodness of God, 
which is derived from the ultimate proportion and 
properties of matter. 

The researches of such experimenters as Lussac and 
Thompson have revealed facts formerly unknown con- 
cerning the primary elements and properties of things. 
In order to give the general reader the basis of the ar- 
gument now under review, we will exhibit a brief 
exposition of principles which will be assented to by 
most or all scientific inquirers. 



SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT. 29 

FORMS AND FORCES OF ELEMENTARY ATOMS. 

About sixty elementary bodies have been discovered. 
Eacli of these is composed of atoms identical in nature 
— almost infinitely small^ and yet of definite size and 
gravity. These elementary atoms are governed by 
certain laws which regulate their motive forces^ the 
most prominent of which are chemical affinity, cohe- 
sion, and polarization. At certain degrees of tem- 
perature, most, if not all the elementary substances, 
will combine with others, and form compounds. We 
rarely find in nature any of the elementary principles 
in a separate state. Alone they seem to be restless, 
and to seek by an innate affinity, or virtus, equilib- 
rium, or rest, in union with atoms of other elementary 
substances. The strength of affinity which holds the 
elementary atoms of different substances in union with 
each other, is stronger in some cases than others. The 
attraction between oxygen and potassium is so strong 
that if a portion of potassium be thrown into a portion 
of water combustion is produced : the oxygen of the 
water separates from the hydrogen, unites with the 
potassium, and leaves the hydrogen free. 

The union of elementary substances takes place ac- 
cording to a law of definite joroportions — proportions 
definite both in volume and weight. 



30 SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT 

The bodies Avhich are formed by the union of ele- 
mentary atoms with each other are called binary or 
primary compounds. One binary compound often 
unites with others ; thus forming complex or ternary 
compounds ; as when an acid which is composed of 
two elementary substances unites with an alkaline 
base^ which is a binary compound of another character. 

In the formation of these chemical compounds the 
elementary molecules^ as we have noticed, unite with 
each other in definite proportions. If the chemist 
experiments with 1000 parts, by weight, of the chlo- 
ride of sodium (common salt), he will obtain 600 parts 
of chlorine, a greenish vapor, and 400 parts of sodium, 
a white shining solid. This would be the invariable 
product of the analysis. 

In common chalk — the carbonate of lime (or more 
accurately, the carbonate of the oxyd of lime) — the 
chemist has a ternary or complex compound. Two 
binary compounds, carbonic acid and the oxyd of cal- 
cium, unite in its formation. 1000 parts of chalk will 
yield in the first analysis 440 parts of carbonic acid and 
560 parts of lime. The complex compound is now 
separated into two primary compounds — carbonic acid 
and lime. The chemist pursues the analysis, and ob- 
tains the elementary substances in each of these, in the 
proportion of 320 parts of oxygen and 120 parts of 



FROM FIRST THINGS. 31 

carbon^ in the carbonic acid — a proportion of 3 to 8. 
From the lime he obtains 160 j^arts of oxygen and 400 
parts of calcium — a proportion of 2 to 5. 

If^ now^ the experimenter, having obtained the ele- 
mentary substances, desires to compound them again, 
he can do it only in definite weights. Thus analytic 
and synthetic processes demonstrate the principle of 
definite proportion in the primary atoms of matter. 

As in gravity, so in volume ; the elementary sub- 
stances unite in definite proportions. To form water, 
half the bulk and eight times the weight of oxygen 
unite with twice the bulk and eight times the weight 
of hydrogen. 

One substance will often take two or more propor- 
tions of some other into union with itself, one quantity 
being a serial or multiple proportion of the other. The 
gases, oxygen and nitrogen, unite in the following 
several proportions : 14 of oxygen to 8 of hydrogen ; 
14 — 24 ; 14 — 32 ; 14 — 40. Fourteen parts of nitrogen 
will receive from one to five times the definite propor- 
tion of eight of oxygen. 

These elementary atoms of about sixty different sub- 
stances, united in different proportions, form the visible 
phenomena of the globe. By homogeneous attraction 
elementary masses are formed — by elective attraction 
compound bodies are formed ; the latter affinity regu- 



32 SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT 

lated by the principle of proportion^ as exhibited by 
the foregoing facts. 

Sir John Herschel^ before the Royal Society in 1845, 
in noticing these facts, said — " These discoveries effect- 
ually destroy the idea of an external self-existent mat- 
ter, by giving to each of its atoms at once the essential 
characteristics of a manufactured article and a subor- 
dinate agent/' ^^ When we see/' says he, " a great 
number of things precisely alike, we do not believe 
this similarity to have originated except from a com-' 
mon principle independent of them/' These remarks 
indicate the character of the argument, and the con- 
clusion fairly deducible from the nature and properties 
of first things. 

ADDITIONAL INFERENCES DEDUCIBLE FROM THE SAME FACTS. 

There are other considerations in addition to those 
spoken of by Sir John, which render the argument 
derived from the forms and properties of primitive 
atoms almost as satisfactory, to some minds, as that 
predicated upon evidences of design in the structure 
of animated beings ; and, being the last step in the 
ascending scale from effect to cause, the argument is 
the more conclusive. If there be marks of desio-n in 
the form and qualities of first things, there is no in- 



I 



FROM FIRST THINGS. 33 

tervening second cause between them and the Creator. 
From this last step in the a posteriori argument we 
ascend directly to the Creating Mind. With the pri- 
mary properties of matter second causes cease, and the 
forms and forces of first things stand connected, by a 
logical necessity, immediately with the First Cause. 

We will notice other marks of design besides those 
referred to above, which may be gathered from the 
primitive constitution of things. 

Instead of a single elementary principle, about sixty^ 
more or less, are known to exist.'**' These being diverse 
in their nature from each other — one not being produced 
from the other j and yet all hearing the evidence of rela- 
tion to one another — this diversity of properties and 
unity of relations brings in each additional element, 
after the first, as an additional evidence of the exist- 
ence of a Designing Creator. Had there been but one, 
or even two or three elementary substances, the organ- 
ized kingdoms of nature could not have existed. Every 
additional element therefore which aids to constitute 
the variety, and which is necessary to constitute the 
forms of life, is an evidence of a Designing Intelli- 

* The question concerniDg further divisibility of sorae substances now 
supposed to be elementary does not affect the argument. Should the sup- 
position prove true, it would increase rather than diminish its force. It 
would increase the plurality in the premises, and thereby strengthen tho 
calculation against the doctrine of chance. 

2* 



34 SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT 

gence, exercised in view of the future organic orders of 
nature, ages before they were called into existence. 

The fluidity of some elementary substances, and the 
solid and gaseous character of others, in their natural 
state, show another adaptation in the form of first 
things. If the elements were all solids or all fluids, no 
organized being could exist. We know it is sometimes 
said, in answer to such statements as this, that organ- 
ized beings might exist in such conditions, only they 
would be differently constituted from present species, 
and adapted to the condition of universal fluidity or 
solidity. But there are necessities even in the nature 
of things. There could have been no body without 
solidity, and no motion of bodies without fluid or gas- 
eous elements. The supposition, therefore, is absurd ; 
and the evidence of design seen in the solid, fluid, and 
gaseous constitution of elementary substances, stands 
unimpeached. 

These testimonies are cumulative. When we add to 
this diversity in the natural state of the elements their 
capacity to change from solids to fluids, and vice versdy 
the evidence of design, seen in the relation of one of 
these characteristics to the other, and of all to the va- . 
ried phenomena of nature, is strengthened many fold. 

Again : There are, as we have noticed, two species 
of attraction ; the one uniting homogeneous atoms — 



FROM FIRST THINGS. 35 

the other forming compounds of diverse substances 
into one mass. Now^ had but one attractive force 
characterized matter, the earth would have continued 
forever without form, and void. With but one at- 
tractive force, homogeneous masses would have been 
formed : but these masses would have existed in an 
isolated state ; and in this condition, if there were 
movement of the elementary masses, it would have 
occasioned the eternal collision and repellence of iso- 
lated substances. But by an additional attraction, 
which unites the essential elements of matter with 
each other, in bodies whose compounds are almost 
infinitely varied, place, and form, and beauty are given 
to the animate and inanimate phenomena of the 
creation. 

Again : The proportionate volume and gravity of 
elementary molecules furnishes another evidence of 
design in the beginning of the creation. Suppose there 
had been no fixed proportion regulating the union of 
oxygen and nitrogen, but that they would mix with 
each other in any and in all proportions ; then there 
could have been no adjustment of the lungs of ani- 
mated beings to the atmosphere. Proportion in the 
one was necessary, in order that there could be adapt- 
ation and adjustment in the other. So of other 
compounds which affect other parts and processes of 



36 SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT 

the animal economy. If there had been no definite 
proportions; in which alone the elementary substances 
would compound themselves, there could have been no 
adjustment of the organs of motion and life to the con- 
ditions of nature. 

THESE SEVERAL CONSIDERATIONS ACCUMULATE A STRONG 
TESTIMONY. 

Now, when all these particulars are contemplated in 
their relations . to each other, the conclusion seems 
almost irresistible, that the physical creation at, its 
birth was endowed with proportions, and properties, 
and laws, which implied, as a sequence, the organic 
creation, yet many ages in the future. A creation of 
first things with such a constitution contains evidence 
in itself (as we think) of the creation of matter, and 
most certainly of the power and wisdom of God in 
giving form, property, and law to the material universe. 

If it were granted to those who hold the Lamarkean 
hypothesis, that all the forms and forces of the organic 
creation, existing at present, originated in preceding 
properties of things, and in the conditions by which 
these properties are brought into play, this would only 
make the question more peculiarly pressing and per- 
tinent — Whence the properties, and laws, and con- 



FROM FIRST THINGS. 37 

ditions of finst things ? If there is perspicuous evidence 
of design in the proportions of pristine atoms ; and if, 
by the force and form of these, matter has been de- 
veloped into the order and beauty of the present crea- 
tion ; then the design in the constitution of the primary 
constituents of things, which contemplated all future 
phenomena, is only the more apparent and the more 
wonderful. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS WHICH ESTABLISH THE DOCTRINE OF 
PROGRESSIVE ADVANCES IN CREATION FROM LOWER TO HIGHER 
SPECIES, AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED BY THESE FACTS. 

It is no longer necessary to elaborate the evidence 
of progressive steps in the exercise of creative energy 
upon the earth ; those evidences have long since been 
industriously collated. There is^ probably, no one at 
the present time conversant with geological studies, 
who doubts that creative energy upon our globe has 
proceeded upon the principle of j^rogress. 

Exceptions to the principle of consecutive progress 
have been alleged at some points in the chain of or- 
ganic life ; and it is true that, as the four great orders 
of animated beings pass from the first individuals up- 
ward, there are links where the chain is broken — but, 
in view of the varied and cumulative evidence which 
sustains the general principle, the exceptions, we think, 
ought not to raise a doubt in any mind in relation to 
successive advances in the great scheme of creation. 



I 



EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS. 39 

We do not speak now in relation to the Lamarkean 
hypothesis, or in relation to any hypothesis which as- 
sumes the development of one species into another by 
the ^^ force of nature/' Such hypotheses, if they as- 
sume that one life-property produces another, new and 
diverse from itself, are merely attempts to clothe nat- 
ural principles with divine attributes : but still, the 
statements upon which such hypotheses are based, so 
far as they are authentic, ought not to be undervalued. 
Nothing is gained for the cause of Truth by impeach- 
ing a well-supported statement, because it seems to 
invalidate a conclusion which we desire to establish. 
There are, undoubtedly, facts sufficient to prove pro- 
gress from lower to higher forms and faculties in the 
work of creation. There are no exceptions which invali- 
date the general statement that the earth's surface has 
been inhabited by different species of plants and ani- 
mals, the most of which ceased to exist many ages 
before the creation of man ; and that in the orders 
of creation each successive genus is with few, if any 
exceptions, higher in organization than preceding ones. 

THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS WHICH INVALIDATE THE FACT 
OF PROGRESS. 

The exception often referred to by able writers, that 
fishes of a complex structure are found in the Silurian 



40 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS 

group^ may "be alleged against the development hy- 
pothesis^ to counteract which, more particularly, it is 
adduced ; but, aside from all theories, and inquiring as 
to the fact whether higher forms of animated life did 
not progressively succeed the earlier species, all parties 

would answer the inquiry thus propounded in the af- 
firmative. 

It is likewise true that, in the progress of ages, some 
species of vegetables and animals have degenerated. 
When the conditions of the eartVs surface have 
changed, and certain species have continued to exist, 
it is found that their size usually diminishes, their 
number decreases, and their dominion uj)on the earth's 
surface passes away. But this obviously has been the 
result of changes in the condition of the globe, which 
were more favorable to the higher species, and conse- ^^ 
quently less favorable to those below them ; thus the *| 
higher temperature and humid atmosphere of the sec- 
ondary period were succeeded by a state of the earth's 
surface more favorable to the conformation and in- 
stincts of other creatures, advanced beyond saurians on 
the scale of animated life. Hence the deterioration of 
lower species would be the legitimate result of the in- 
troduction of conditions suitable to advanced forms. 
The very fact of degeneracy in lower species as the 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 41 

higher came on, is, in itself, no slight testimony to the 
rule of progress in the process of creation. 

The fact, too, that moUusks of a complex structure, 
and some cartilaginous fishes, existed in the early seas, 
is only another testimony to the well-ascertained prin- 
ciple that creatures were from the first adapted to the 
conditions of the earth's surface. The condition of the 
primitive seas, except perhaps in the matters of higher 
temperature and greater expansion, did not differ great- 
ly from that of the seas in all ages ; hence, as marine 
conditions have remained in many important respects 
nearly the same from the first, we would expect to find, 
as we do find, that some species and genera of marine 
life have had a wider range and a more prolonged ex- 
istence than the denizens of the land. 

The diagram at the beginning of the volume will 
give a condensed illustration of the main facts, and set 
the order of progress in creation clearly before the mind 
of the reader. 

The upward progress of creation, as illustrated by 
the diagram, is sufficiently conspicuous. We will 
sketch an outline to give definiteness to the im- 
pression, and in order that the reader may have in 
mind a distinct apprehension of the facts from which 
we reason. 



42 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

% 
SKETCH OF THE PHYSICAL PROGRESS OF THE EARTH. 

There can be no doubt but that the mass of the 
foundation granite is condensed from a state of igneous 
fusion. The metamorphic rocks, which lie next above, 
are composed of masses of primitive rock, broken and 
comminuted into slates, which compose the schistose 
and sienitic groups. These rocks, laid down in the 
primitive seas upon the hot granitic floor of the uni- 
versal ocean, bear evidence, in many regions, of being 
permeated, and, in some instances, changed in struct- 
ure by the heat radiated from the subjacent rocks. 
The whole system of granites, slates, and conglom- 
erates, are generally classed as primitive rocks. This 
primitive formation is called non-fossiliferous, because 
no traces of life are found in it. It is a fair, although 
not an unquestioned deduction, derived from the ab- 
solute evidences of the igneous condition of things 
during the primitive period, that organization was not 
possible in the condition of the globe at that age of 
time. 

The hypothesis is popular that the earth is a mass 
of molten matter covered by an oxydized crust — that 
the strata of sedimentary rock lie upon the primitive 
as the coats of an onion, except that the one is con- 
tinuous, while the rock-rinds are laid in patches of 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 43 

greater or less extent upon the foundation granite, 
which itself is contiguous to the molten matter below. 

In the earliest period, when life did not exist, and 
when only the metamorphic or lowest sedimentary- 
rocks had been deposited, the crust of the earth was 
broken and agitated by frequent convulsions. The 
foundation rock was not yet sufficiently thick and 
strong to bear up high mountain elevations ; but the 
cracks produced were filled with basaltic and other 
material in an igneous state, which often in the earli- 
est, and sometimes at later periods, overflowed and 
solidified upon the surface. Thus, by ejections of 
fluid matter from below which condensed above, and 
by depositions from the ocean which then covered the 
entire surface of the earth, the foundation formation 
was consolidated, upon which was to be erected the 
sublime superstructures of the organic kingdoms of 
creation. 



THE GRAYWACKE OR PALEOZOIC FORMATION". FIRST LIFE 

PERIOD. 

When the first belt of fossiliferous rocks was laid 
down upon the sienites and conglomerates of the upper 
primitive, the seas covered almost the whole area of 
the earth's surface. There were, probably, some peaks 



44 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

of granite rising above the universal ocean. From this 
universal ocean, which washed and wore the rock-bed 
upon which it lay, the Cambrian and Silurian groups 
were deposited. The lower portion of this group are 
called the primary fossiliferous strata, because, while 
they were being formed at the bottom of the ocean, 
life first began in the waters. During this first life- 
period no air-breathing animals existed. Life was 
confined to the seas. If vegetation existed in the 
seas, of which there are some indications, it was in 
the low form of fucoids : if it existed out of the seas, 
it was only as rock-rust upon exposed surfaces. During 
this period the four great orders of animated life in the 
ocean began, nearly together in the order of time ; but 
the evidence is almost conclusive that radiata, articu- 
lata, and moUusca, preceded the vertebrata. Whether 
the four orders of Cuvier began simultaneously or not, 
is not a point of importance ; other criteria besides the 
divisions of naturalists are necessary to determine the 
advance of a creature upon the scale of life. Even if 
the first cartilaginous fishes, or plataceans, were proper 
vertebrates, yet no one supposes that they were as high 
upon the scale of life as the lowest air-breathing rep- 
tiles, which followed the order of time and the order of 
progress. 

Professor Ansted has given one of the most recent 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 45 

and accurate panoramic views of the different periods of 
creative energy. Of this first period he says : — " Tlie 
animals we do find consist of certain sea-weeds^ called 
graptolites — the habitation^ probably, of compound 
creatures, which seem scarcely to deserve the name of 
animals ; of other polyps of somewhat higher organi- 
zation, building those lasting and singular monuments, 
the coral reefs ; of animals removed yet another step 
in advance, and called crinoids ; and of a singular and 
extensive group of crustacean animals, known by the 
name of trilobites. This series of rock also include a 
considerable group of bivalve shells, belonging to ani- 
mals of low organization, and allied to the terebratula ; 
a few other shells, both bivalve and univalve ; and last 
of all, a number of the many-chambered shells of a 
carnivorous animal like the cuttle-fish, a creature of 
high and complicated organization among the inverte- 
brata, and which seems to have been introduced among 
the earliest species intended to people the primeval 
seas. In the older beds, at least until the termination 
of the first great epoch — the Silurian — there seem, in- 
deed, only to have been introduced successive modifi- 
cations and additional species of the invertebrated 
type ; and not till [near ?] its close did the fishes ap- 
pear, as if preparing the way for the next period 



46 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS^ 

marked by the prevalence of more highly organized 
beings/' '^ 

Perfect in themselves, and teeming abundantly in 
the ancient seas, life is first manifested in polyps, 
stone-lilies, valve and chambered shells ; and with 
these, although not among the earliest species, carti- 
laginous, vertebrate creatures, now classed by natu- 
ralists with placoid and ganoid fishes.f Such was 
animated nature during the first life-period. While 
we have not evidence for the statement that the crea- 
tures of this formation were successive advances from 
the lowest link of life, yet all agree that they formed 
the lowest links of the four great chains of animated 
nature. 

* Ansted's Ancient World, c. 3. 

f The classification of J;lie ganoid fishes with the vertebrates has led 
some to write as if this fact militated against the absolute evidence of up- 
ward progress upon the scale of life. If no order of living beings had 
ever existed but the vertebrata, the evidence of a rising scale in creation 
would be almost as absolute as it is now. The progress from a cartilagi- 
nous, oviparous, marine creature, of the lowest species of vertebrata, to an 
air-breathing mammal of the highest species, surely ought to satisfy those 
who make most of the classifications of the naturalist. Even if the ver- 
tebra be considered the basis upon which the organization of the order is 
predicated, and if Professor Owen's doctrine of limbs be received, yet the 
new appendages, new adaptations, new and diverse physiological struct- 
ures, mark a progress between the first and last vertebrate, as distinct as 
the difference between the articulate and the first vertebrate. But it is 
not the method of progress^ but the fact of progress in forms and life forces 
(as we notice in the text further on), from which we deduce evidence of 
the being and attributes of God. 



I 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTIIORIZED. 47 



THE CARBONIFEROUS FORMATION. SECOND LIFE PERIOD. 

The formation wliicli succeeds the Silurian groups 
has been called the Carboniferous System ; a name sig- 
nificant of the immense amount of carbonaceous ma- 
terial which composes its medial and upper portions. 
The mountain limestone and the great coal-beds are 
chief members of this series of strata. At the beginning 
of this formation^ many species of things found in the 
Silurian and Devonian rocks perished, and are found no 
more upon the globe. The old red sandstone, com- 
posed of conglomerates and finer silicious material^ 
mostly of a dark red color, lies at the bottom of the 
carboniferous deposits ; or rather, at the transition be- 
tween the Devonian and carboniferous rocks. At this 
point of transition between the graywackes and the 
carboniferous the crust of the earth was convulsed, and 
the seas agitated and turbulent. The conditions of the 
surface were greatly changed. After the deposition of 
the sandstone, which immediately ensued upon the 
breaking up of the old conditions, there was again com- 
parative repose. The waters were impregnated with 
calcareous material, and the ocean again swarmed with 
moUusks and lime-coated creatures of various genera. 
They were so numerous that their exuvia, imbedded in 



48 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

calcareous sediment at the sea bottoms, and since ele- 
vated into dry land, form a large portion of the lime- 
stone now underlying some of the finest soils upon tli 
globe. 

Higher up in the carboniferous strata are located the 
vast coal-beds, found in almost every temperate region 
of Jhe globe. The dry land existing at this period 
probably j)resented large areas of level or slightly un- 
dulating territory, not greatly elevated above the seas. 
The highest mountain chains had not yet been ele- 
vated. The alternations of fresh and salt water in 
estuaries and shallow basins indicate the general char- 
acter of the surface. Upon the new calcareous soils, 
possessing, no doubt, as a component, much animal 
matter, grew the dense vegetation which forms the 
mass of the coal measures. Few vegetable species of 
all that composed the immense mass of bituminous 
coal now exist ; and those few which remain, if they be 
really identical, are so diminished and varied that the 
discriminations of the naturalist alone can identify 
them. The vegetation at this period was luxurious 
and gigantic. Plants belonging to the flag and fern 
species grew to the altitude and diameter of trees. It 
was an age of weed-trees, with innumerable plants of 
the cactus genus as an undergrowth, and with softer 
conifer^e and palms interspersed. 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTIIOIIIZED. 49 

This vegetation was probably swept from the surface 
into the declivities and inland lakes ; and^ by a process 
similar to that still going on in some peat-bogs^ it ac- 
cumulated by aggregation and reproduction into mass- 
es, of the extent of which we can form no adequate 
conception. During this period, upheavals of portions 
of the earth's crust frequently occurred. The ocean 
wave, occasioned by the upheaval of lands from below, 
having swept the vegetation from the acclivities into 
the basins, would subside, and leave the accumulated 
vegetation covered with a coating of sediment ; upon 
which, again, another growth of dense vegetation 
might be produced. 

The theories of geologists respecting the formation 
of the coal-basins are various ; some even doubt 
whether the bases of coal be of vegetable origin.^'' For 
the purposes of our argument, it is enough that these 
immense beds of fossil fuel were accumulated and 
preserved in the crust of the earth hundreds of ages 
before man was created. 

During the carboniferous period traces of insects and 
of land animals began to appear. Fresh-water shells 



* Essays on Geological Subjects, by Colonel Charles Whittlesey. Those 
who have observed various substances through a microscope, will prob- 
ably admit that this instrument is not so much to be relied on in settling 
questions of this character. 

3 



50 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

were few and small. Little more is known than what 
is necessary to indicate that life, before confined to the 
ocean, had now dawned in the fresh waters and upon 
the uplands of the earth. New species of radiates 
were introduced, and a few new moUusks ; the lat- 
ter species, especially of encrinites, being higher 
in organization than previous ones. Sauroid fishes, 
and some creatures approaching, if they were not per- 
fect reptiles, exhibit themselves. Fishes belonging to 
genera of the previous* period still exist, and some new 
ichthyic forms of great strength and size are found. 
Sauroid fishes, and many species assimilated to the 
shark tribe, attained at this age their highest develop- 
ment. Great in number and in strength, and voracious 
as reptiles, they held dominion as free-swimmers in 
the waters, while the cephalopods ruled the region 
below. 

In the upper portion of this group, reptilian forms 
were first introduced. ^* They were not, however, 
members of that group through which the passage 
from sauroid fishes to true saurians takes place, but 
belonged to a higher and to a complicated type of that 
form. It seems clear, therefore, that while a progress- 
ive and general advance in point of organization is, in 
one sense, a method observed in nature, still there is 
not such a regular gradation that an animal of a lower 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 51 

organization can be supposed to be employed as tbe 
agent in introducing a higher group/' '^ 

SALIFEROUS FORMATION. THIRD LIFE PERIOD. 

At the close of the carboniferous system^ convulsions 
occurred^ which occasioned changes in the seas and in 
the land surface of the earth. The marks of these 
convulsions^ intervening between the carboniferous and 
saliferous groups, are visible over most portions of the 
globe that have been examined. Upheavals of ocean 
beds — strong ocean currents — volcanic deposits — por- 
phyritic dykes — twisted and overlapping strata, indi- 
cate a series of convulsions of great power and widely 
extended. This series of catastrophes was succeeded, 
as was the previous one between the Cambrian and 
carboniferous rocks, by a deposit of silicious material 
of red texture, and called the new red sandstone. 
Upon this sandstone, in calmer waters, the magnesian 
limestones were thrown down, succeeding which sili- 
cious and calcareous strata intervene up to the lias of 
the oolitic groups. 

During the convulsions which changed the conditions 
of the surface at the beginning of the saliferous period, 
most of the species of animals which existed during 

* Ancient World, c. 6. 



52 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

the preceding period were destroyed. Mollusks and 
fishes no longer hold undisputed empire in the seas. 
Some species are preserved, but the forms of the sur- 
vivors in most instances are changed. Species of 
terebratula — ^Hhe aristocracy of the seas'' — maintain 
their place and proper persons. Nautili and fish-sharks 
remain, but diminished in number and in size. Life, 
for the most part, exhibits itself in new forms. Birds, 
and bactrians, and reptiliaj^^s are prevalent. Land 
vegetation is changed. But few plants of the coal- 
measure species survive. The evidence is full that this 
was not an age of exuberant vegetation, as the pre- 
vious one had been. The chief denizens of this period 
were enormous frogs ; and some remains of birds are 
found, of a size and structure which partake of the 
marvelous.'-*' Many of the bactrians approached the 
lizard in form, and the birds were probably wingless — 
waders and carnivorous. 

OOLITIC FORMATION. FOURTH LIFE PERIOD. 

Succeeding the saliferous rocks, or rather in continu- 
ation of the same deposits,! we reach the oolitic group, 

. * Sir Charles Lyell's examinations in America, and the New Zealand 
specimens of Mr. V^. Mantell, verify all that could be imagined of size and 
structure in aves. 

f The saliferous and the oohtic should probably be reckoned one hfe 
period. 



AND THE INl^^ERENCES AUTHOKIZED. 53 

in which reptilian life is conspicuous in the sea, land 
and atmosphere. Large in dimensions, various in spe- 
cies, and mostly dissimilar from forms of life before or 
since, reptiles swam in the seas, crawled upon the land, 
and the pterodactyl expanded its leathern wings, and 
betook itself to the air. Changes of ocean and land 
occur at this period, but no such general destruction 
of species and introduction of new forms, as occurred 
at the beginning of the preceding formation. During 
the deposition of the oolites, insects appear in the air 
and upon the earth, and the remains of marsupialia 
indicate the first presence in the series of advancing 
life, of the lowest order of mammifers. 

THE CRETACEOUS FORMATION.- — FIFTH LIFE PERIOD. 

Following the oolitic, we rise to the cretaceous 
formation. The first strata, or green sand, indicate 
another change in the condition of the seas. The 
change is most apparent over the Continent and in 
North America, but it is not marked by any evidences 
of turbulence, or of the presence of destructive catas- 
trophes, such as appear at some preceding and suc- 
ceedyig eras in the earth's history. The formation 
above the sand is mostly cretaceous. Marine life is 
somewhat changed. New species of fishes appear, 



54 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS 



more assimilated to those living in the present oceans. 
Eeptiles still exist, as in the preceding series of rocks. 
Some new sanrians have been discovered. Encrinites, 
polyps, and moUusks are abundant. Traces of birds 
are not wanting. Zoophitae swarmed in the oceans, 
and innumerable myriads of animalculae have left their 
shining shields'*^' in the cretaceous strata of Ei>gland 
and the Continent. 

TERTIARY FORMATION. SIXTH LIFE PERIOD. 

The tertiary groups lying above the cretaceous, are 
immediately subjacent to the drift, which marks the 
introduction of the present mundane period. They 
consist of stratified rocks, formed in limited seas and 
estuaries, both of salt and fresh water. They lie con- 
formably u23on the cretaceous strata, and are found 
covering large areas in Europe, and in the western 
parts of the United States. 

At the commencement of the tertiary deposits ex- 
tensive elevations of land took j)lace, and some of the 
highest mountain chains were upheaved. Almost the 
entire number of living species were again changed by 
the convulsions which terminated the cretaceous strata, 
and elevated the extended land surface of the teiiiary 

* If the microscope has not beguiled the fancy of observers, in some 
cases. 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 55 

deposits. Tertiary life difters for the most part from 
preceding species. Land and marine animals are in- 
troduced in great numbers^ but they differ from pre- 
ceding species about as widely as they do from present 
animals. Not one in twenty of the inhabitants of the 
eeaSj and scarcely any upon the land^ are identical with 
species now living. As the tertiary deposits advance 
to the close of the period^ the assimilation of animals 
to present species becomes more apparent. In the 
uppermost strata of the tertiary, one half of the marine 
animals have living analogues in the present seas, and 
a few species of land animals still live, v/hich existed 
before the change in the earth's surface took place, 
which was succeeded by the present order of things. 

THE DRIFT FORMATION. SEVENTH LIFE PERIOD. 

The last great change upon the earth's surface, after 
which succeeds the present order of things, is called 
the Drift Formation. It was introduced by a move- 
ment of 'the seas over the land, the cause of which 
geologists have not been able satisfactorily to deter- 
mine. The general features of the formation, and the 
character of the force which produced it, are pretty ac- 
curately determined ; but the causes which brought 
those forces into play are not known. 



66 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

A wave or flood^ loaded with masses of ice and 
broken rock, passed with its burden over most of the 
northern and temperate regions. This flood-current 
rose above many mountains of considerable altitude, 
and its direction in many cases was more or less affect- 
ed by high mountain chains. Large masses of rock, 
torn from their beds by the power of the current, 
dropped at distances proportioned to their gravity. 
Smaller masses were worn and carried further by the 
wave ; while the softer masses of sand and limestone 
were comminuted, and carried by the inundation over 
the hills and through the valleys of most of the known 
world. The lowest strata of the drift is often of a 
coarse material, of a breccia and conglomerate charac- 
ter. Above these are belts of clay ; and still higher, 
fine sand deposits : all together indicating flood and 
force in the commencement, which terminated in calm- 
er waters, quietly subsiding from the surface. During 
the deposition of the drift the temperature was greatly 
depressed. Animals existing during the last division 
of the tertiary period, when the drift wave overflowed M 
the earth, were swept from the surface, and buried in 
estuaries and eddies, from which their remains are now 
exhumed and restored as the museum-wonders of a 
former world. But few of many species of land animals 
survived the drift wave. From the subsiding waters 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 57 

of the flood our present subsoils were deposited, lighter 
upon the hills, but a deeper and rich diluvium in the 
valleys and lower levels of the globe. Thenceforward 
to the present time, the water-courses and the con- 
formation of the surface have remained steadfast, dis- 
turbed only by paroxysms of earthquake and volcanic 
action, which indicate that the forces still operate 
v/hich have heretofore changed the surface aspect of 
the globe. And in reason's ear they whisper the ad- 
monition, that the tenure by which present races hold 
possession of the earth is not eternal. 

This sketch, with the preceding table, will give dis- 
tinctness to the conclusion, accepted in a general sense 
by all who are conversant with the subject, that the 
exercise of creative energy in our world is marked by 
the principle of progress. 

It is possible that many valuable writers, in such 
passages as seem to deny progress on the ascending 
scale, mean only to protect the theistic argument 
against some modification of the Lamarkean hypothe- 
sis. They mean only to contest the proposition that 
there is a law of development, proceeding in consecu- 
tive advances hy the transmutation of one species into 
another. That there is a progressive ascent from the 
first created forms of marine life up to the mammals 

of the tertiary and historic periods, no one denies. 

3* 



68 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

While it is admitted that the lowest beings on the 
scale were as perfect in themselves as the higher ones, 
and their functions as well adapted to attain the par- 
ticular organic ends of their being, in the conditions in 
which they were placed ; yet the facts which show the 
advance of created beings in forms and faculties are 
beyond all question. 

It abates the strength of the evidence for the exist- 
ence of God to assume that there has been no progress 
in the work of creation. We have often wondered at 
the reluctance which some excellent men have exhibit- 
ed in admitting the full strength of a fact, verified by 
a thousand different testimonies, succeeding each other 
from first to last upon the theater of creation. If it 
could be proved that *there had been no progress in 
form and faculties, but that vitality had flowed around 
in an organic circle,*'*** an important witness for the 
being and perfections of God would be dead. 

THE FACT OF PROGRESS BEING ESTABLISHED, THE CONCLUSION ^ 
WHICH RESULTS, 

If it be admitted that progress is manifest in the 
economy of creation, then it follows, infallibly, that 

* 'Qgtc ovk uv 7)v aireipov xpovov xdoq ?; vv^^ dZAa ra cvrd del, 7/ 'nSpio6(f)f 
7j aAAwf el-nep Trporepov kvepyeia Svvd/iecjg. el de to abrb del TreptoSu) 6el 
TL del fiivcLv evspyovp," — Aristotle^ Meiaph. xii. c. 6. It may bo that Aris- 
totle does not give the fair sens§ of Plato in this passage. 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. 59 

that progress had a beginning. We do not affirm 
again that matter had a beginning. What we had to 
say on that subject was exhibited in a preceding chap- 
ter ; but we say now, that a creation of finite forms 
and faculties, advancing from lower to higher, accord- 
ing to a principle of progress — such a creation must 
have had a beginning ; and we may add, that the pro- 
gress of finite material forms must have an end. 

It is so manifest a truism that progress indicates a 
beginning, that the statement can not be argued. We 
can, however, define and illustrate the idea, and free it 
from objections. 

By the statement that progress indicates a begin- 
ning, we do not mean progress in a circle, as the earth 
moves round the sun. Even in that case — unless mat- 
ter is as old as motion, and both are eternal — a begin- 
ning might be predicated. We speak of the fact of 
progress in creation, as it is proved and illustrated in 
preceding pages. There has been progress in the con- 
ditions of our earth, and in the forms and faculties of 
organized beings upon the earth. This is a fact. The 
chain, then, may be run back indefinitely, if we can 
not identify the point of beginning ; but, from the na- 
ture of the fact, it can not be extended infinitely. We 
believe that human investigation has defined the place 
of beginning of organic life with sufl&cient precision. 



60 EXPOSITION OF THE FACTS, 

But if the forms of life have advanced on an ascending 
scale, even from a point which can not be precisely de- 
fined — if that advance has been from the first and 
lowest in the four orders up toward the perfect — such 
a scheme of progress being exhibited in the work of 
creation, then it is self-evident that that scheme must 
have had a beginning at some point in time. 

This conclusion being reached, we have then a 
clearly-defined point of departure whence to proceed in 
the further process of the argument. And, at the 
same time, the evidence which the principle of progress 
itself furnishes for the existence of God is distinct and 
forcible. It being settled that organic forms and laws 
had a beginning in time and place upon the earth, 
then, by the constitution of the mind,'*^ a cause ade- 
quate to the production of these eftects must be as- 
sumed. And if the same agencies, the same plan, the 
same forces and laws, are connected with the scheme 
from the beginning to the end, and if it can be shown 
that the end of the scheme includes the intelligent and 
moral, then the cause that originated and advanced 
the series contemplated the end from the beginning, 
and is, therefore, an intelligent and moral cause, ade- 
quate to the production of all created things — which is 
the Divine Mind. 

* As aflarmed in chap. i. Preliminary Statement. 



AND THE INFERENCES AUTHORIZED. Gl 

We will condense and repeat the conclusion : — Pro- 
gress on an ascending scale must have had a beginning. 
If the created series are developed according to a plan, 
then the end must have been contemplated from the 
beginning. If the process of advance is characterized 
by unity of agency, and the end of the series by intel- 
lectual and moral qualities, then the cause of the whole 
economy is one intelligent moral PoioeVj adequate to 
the production of the whole scheme of the creation : 
but a power possessing such attributes is God. 



CHAPTER V. 

ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE, AND THE EVIDENCE THAT PHYS- 
ICAL FORCES AND LAWS HAVE BEEN USED AS INSTRUMENTALI- 
TIES IN ACCOMPLISHING THE FINAL END IN THE GREAT SCHEME 
OF CREATION. 

We shall not endeavor to add any thing to the argu- 
ment derived from the design apparent in the physical 
structure of living beings. This subject has been fully 
investigated^ and the strength of the evidence^ ex- 
amined and cross-examined, is fairly before the world. 
Nor is it necessary in the present aspect of the ques- 
tion to expend labor upon the adaptations apparent in 
the structure of creatures that have perished, but 
which have left medals of their physical conformation 
in the strata of the earth. Cuvier, Owen, and their 
collaborators have done satisfactory service in this de- 
partment of inquiry. Points connected with the 
mechanism of animal forms have for the most part 
ceased to be subjects of inquiry. The point of discus- 
sion in our own times relates more to ultimate ques- 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. G3 

tions, wliicli lie back of the particular adaptations ob- 
servable in animated beings. 

Admitting that design is apparent in the organism 
of the animal creation^ the question is agitated^ wheth- 
er the existence of the organic kingdoms of nature^ and 
the adaptations observable in the structure of things, 
may not be accounted for in some other way than by 
assuming the efficient agency of one intelligent moral 
being, adequate to the production of the phenomena — 
whether the inherent properties of matter and the rule 
of law are not sufficient to account for the production 
of all the phenomena which we perceive ? It is diffi- 
cult to give definiteness to the point of inquiry which 
most attracts the attention of the advocates and oppo- 
nents of Theism in our own times ; the preceding sen- 
tences will give its general aspect. To this aspect of 
the question — one which has exhibited itself as a final 
issue in all ages — we shall look more particularly in 
the current and following chapters of this book. 

We have noticed the evidence derived from the dis- 
positions of matter and the structure of animal organ- 
isms. Paley and his annotators, and more recently the 
Bridgewater writers, have left little to be accomplished 
in this field of inquiry, except to add the testimony 
of any new facts which may be gained by future re- 
searches. Referring the reader to these able works for 



64 ON UNITY IN THE CEEATING CAUSE. 

details^ the following paragraph will give a view of the 
conclusions fairly reached by researches in fossil com- 
parative anatomy. (The same conclusions are, of 
course^, deduced more obviously from the mechanism 
of living species.) 

In the conclusion of Buckland's Bridgewater Treat- 
ise he says — ^^ In all the numerous examples of design 
which we have selected from the various animal and 
vegetable remains that occur in a fossil state, there is 
such a never-failing identity in the fundamental princi- 
ples of their construction, and such uniform adoption 
of analogous means to produce various ends, with so 
much only of departure from one common type of 
mechanism as was requisite to adapt each instrument 
to its own especial function, and to fit each species to 
its own peculiar place and office in the scale of created 
beings, that we can scarcely fail to acknowledge, in all 
these facts, a 'demonstration of the unity of the Intelli- 
gence in which such harmony originated ; and we may 
almost dare to assert, that neither Atheism or Polythe- 
ism would ever have found acceptance in the world, 
had the evidence of high intelligence and unity of de- 
sign, which have been disclosed by modern discoveries 
in physical science, been fully made known to the 
authors or the abettors of systems to which they are so 
diametrically opposed. It is the same hand-wiiting 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 65 

that we reaclj the same system and contrivance that 
we trace ; the unity of object and relation to final 
causes which we see maintained throughout^ and 
constantly proclaiming the Unity of the Great Divine 
Original/' 

Leaving hcre^ with these brief references^, the evi- 
dence deduced from the mechanical conformation of 
things^ we turn to another imjoortant division of evi- 
dence^ which deduces from the arrangement and c?e- 
velopment of a series of things the conclusion that a 
supervising Power controlled the advance of the series 
in view of a final end. To this view^ of the general 
subject the attention of inquirers has not been so much 
directed. The evidence here may be so exhibited as to 
announce with perspicuity^ and we trust with satisfac- 
tory conclusiveness^ the fact that one Supreme Mind 
exists and reigns. 

In producing this argument^ that point which Buck- 
land sets forth as the result of his reasoning in the 
paragraph just quoted should be distinctly observed — 
that is^ Unity in the great governing principles of 
created mechanism throughout all the ages of the past. 
We should see distinctly that the same Intelligence 
has controlled in the progress of creation, developing 
thinL^s from lower to higher forms and conditions ; and 
that the whole scheme, which rises from the first up- 



66 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

ward to physical and moral perfection, is a Unity. 
Can these two propositions, Unity in the Cause and 
Design in the Progress of the Creation, be established? 
We feel an earnest assurance that these pi'opositions 
can be proved ; and we shall hope to contribute some- 
thing, especially under the last head, toward reaching 
the conclusion. Much has already been done to de- 
monstrate Unity of Intelligence in the Creating Cause. 
Design in the Progress of Creation as a single scheme — 
as one grand economy connected by intelligent adapt- 
ation of parts — is the direction in which we will look 
for clearer evidences of the existence of one Supreme 
Being, who designed and controls the scheme of crea- 
tion. 

In the outset of inquiries in the direction indicated 
we will notice the facts establishing the immutability 
and perpetuity of the laws of nature, and the proper 
definition of the term laio^ when used in scientific in- 
quiries. 

UNITY AKD PERMANENCY OF PHYSICAL AND ORGANIC LAW. 

In comparative anatomy, as Cuvier and Owen have 
demonstrated,'''" the same principles of construction 
have prevailed from first to last in the conformation of 

* See Owen on Limbs. 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 67 

the animated creation. We have seen in the synopsis 
introductory to these chapters, that the same chemical 
and electrical forces and laws have existed in all time. 
The atoms and the elements of matter combine with 
and affect each other noAv as they ever have done. 
New combinations may produce new phenomena, but 
all are produced in obedience to the same unchanged 
and unchangeable laws. The physical forces may have 
acted at early periods with more frequency, and the 
resistance being less, with more intensity ; but physical 
forces have affected matter according to fixed laws 
forever. 

The physiological laws of the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms have continued the same. Circulation, res- 
piration, nutrition, began with the beginning, and must 
continue to the end of organization. The flowerless 
and flowering plants, the radiata, articulata, moUusca, 
and vertebrata, have been multiplied indefinitely in 
species ; myriads have perished and multitudes survive, 
but both extinct and living species certify to the per- 
petuity and immutability of the laws which govern the 
whole. The same principles, adapting organized beings 
to each other and to natural conditions, have continued 
from the first. Cuvier the eminent said, ^^ Any one who 
observes merely the print of a cloven hoof may con- 
clude that it has been left by a ruminant animal, and 



68 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

regard the conclusion as equally certain with any other 
in physics or morals/' 

There can be no question about the fact affirmed by 
all science^ that the laws of matter have existed since 
the organization or " collocation'' of the j)hysical uni- 
verse — the organic laws since the commencement of 
organization, and specific physiological laws since the 
commencement of specific genera of plants and crea- 
tures upon the globe. New adaptations and new 
forms, rising to higher ends in the scheme of progress, 
have been originated, and with the new collocations 
and adjustments connected with new species, new laws 
of instinct and of adaptation were likewise originated. 
But these specific adaptations are all predicated in 
accordance with the foundation laws of structure, 
which were enforced when the first orders of things 
v/ere created upon the earth. One cause, then, has 
acted from first to last in the process of creation, 
unless we can attribute the origin and the regulated 
activity of the several forces of nature to several dif- 
ferent causes, but if there be unity in the general plan, 
and if all the forces and lawfe of nature are parts of 
one system, and work together in the accomplishment 
of a final end, then unity of causation is established, 
and the instrumental character of natural forces and 
laws is fairly deduced ; because, if an intelligent pro- 



ON UNITY IN THE CEEATING CAUSE. 69 

cess is carried to a designed end by the operation of 
natural forces and laws^ we must either consider the 
laws of nature intelligent, or that there is an intelli- 
gent governor, who ordained and who controls the 
forces and regulates the laws of the universe. 

Here, then, we introduce the main inquiry which 
it will be our business in this part of our treatise to 
investigate. Has the progress visible in the process 
of creation been effected by the forces and laius of 
nature^ as efficient and sufficient causes ; or has one 
intelligent^ controlling Power ^ used these as instkument- 
ALiTiES in accomplishing the tvorJc of p)rogresSj which 
ultimates in an intelligent and moral end. ? 

DISCRIMINATIONS IN RELATION TO THE PHRASE LAW OF 
NATURE. 

Let us endeavor, at the outset, to get a discriminat- 
ing apj)rehension of the importance of the phrase 
"laws of nature,'^ and likewise of the points where 
design in the application of natural forces and the 
regulating rule of natural laws are to be observed. 
Whewell has a succinct chapter on this subject : we 
can do no better than to give some of its leading para- 
graphs, so far as they relate to the point in question, 
adding other discriminations which we think im- 
portant. 



70 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

" In the phrase ^ laws of nature/ all properties "'•** of 
the portions of the material world are included ; all ' 
modes of action and rules of causation^ according to 
which they operate on each other. The whole course 
of the material universe^ therefore^ is but the collect- 
ive result of such laws ; its movements are only the 
aggregate of their working. All natural occurrences in 
the skies and on the earthy in the organic and in the 
inorganic world, are determined by the relations of the 
elements and the action of the forces, of which the 
rules are thus prescribed [by law]. The relations and 
rules by which these occurrences are thus determined 
necessarily depend on measures of time and space, 
motion and force ; on quantities, which are subject to 
numerical measurement, and capable of being con- 
nected by mathematical properties. 

^^ It will be our business to show that the laws which 
really prevail in nature are, by their form^ that is, by 
the nature of the connection which they establish 
among the quantities and properties which they regu- 
late, remarkably adapted to the office which is assigned 
them ; and thus offer evidence of selection, design, and 
goodness in the Power by which they were established. 
But these characters of the legislation of the universe 

* To include the specific properties of things in the term " laws of 
nature." perplexes, if it does not mislead the inquirer. 



ON UNITY IN THE CHEATING CAUSE. 71 

may also be seen^ in many instances, in a manner 
somewliat different from the selection of the law. The 
nature of the connection remaining the same, the quan- 
tities which it regulates may also, in their magnitude, 
bear marks of selection and purpose. For the law may 
be the same, while the quantities to which it applies 
are different. 

" Ijifow this being understood, the adaptation of a 
law to its purpose may appear in two ways — either in 
the form of the laio^ or in the amount of the magni- 
tude which it regulates. The form of the law deter- 
mines in what manner the fact shall take place ; the 
arbitrary magnitude determines how fast^ hoiv far^ how 
' soon. The one gives a model, the other a measure of 
the phenomenon. The one draws the plan, the other 
the scale upon which it is to be executed. The one 
gives the rule, the other the rate. If either were 
wrongly taken, the result would be wrong too/^-^' 

These passages give some degree of perspicuity to 
the idea of natural law, but a more discriminating 
definition is still necessary. The complete conclusion 
of the question at issue with the Materialists can be 
reached only by a true definition of the term laio of 
nature, as discriminated from the properties and forces 

* Whewell on G-en. Physics, c. 2. 



72 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

of matter. Without perfect definitions^ no conclusion 
can ever approximate the completeness of a logical 
demonstration. 



THE BENEFICIAL RESULTS OF DISCRIMINATING DEFINITIONS. 

Since the intimation of Sir John Herschel that better 
definitions were needed of these terms^ in order that 
the vagaries of the fancy might not be interposed as 
the deductions of accurate investigation^ some advances 
have been made in a right direction. Mr. M^Cosh 
(b. ii. c. 1) has a better analysis of the whole subject, 
which includes the properties^ forces, and laws of mat- 
ter, than had been given before ; and the time, we 
think, is hastening, when the scientific vocabulary of 
first things will be settled and accepted. When that 
time shall have come another chapter will be written 
by the Theists of that day, which will bring to an end 
the discussion between those who believe in the divin- 
ity of mind and those who believe in the divinity of 
matter. It will then be seen that design is apparent, 
not only in the adjustment of the parts of the physical 
universe in time, and space, and proportion, and in the 
selection of the laws which govern the changes of 
things ; but it will likewise be seen, that new species 
in the organic kingdoms of nature require adjustment 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 78 

and regulation by law, as much as would the creation 
of a new globe, or the interposition of some new body- 
in the solar system. The specific properties of a fly 
and its adaptation to external nature are as complex 
and as manifold as the properties and adaptations of a 
globe. It is an error which supposes that power and 
wisdom in the Creator is in anywise to be estimated by 
the magnitudes of material bodies. 

It will be seen likewise, that if matter possess mo- 
tion in any sense, it is a latent property — if it have a 
virtiiSj it is a property or quality that depends on the 
disposition or combination of things — that the proper- 
ties of matter are developed in forces by the adjust- 
ment of one portion of matter in relation to another. 
The adjustment of thiligs brings the properties into 
action, and the law merely expresses the mode or 
measure of the force.-*^ Thus, both the forces of mat- 
ter and the laws of matter depend upon the adjust- 
ment of the elements and masses of matter ; and in^ 
stead of law being the cause of motion, it is its measure. 

* " The problem of inductive logic may be summed up in two ques- 
tions: How to ascertain the laws of nature? and how, after having 
ascertained them, to follow them into their results ? On the other hand, 
we must not suffer ourselves to imagine that this mode of statement 
amounts to the real analysis, or to any thing but a mere verbal transform- 
ation of the problem ; for the expression, Laivs of Nature, means nothing 
but the uniformities which exist among natural phenomena." — MilVs Si/s, 
of Logic, b. iii. c. 4. • , • 

4 

4 



74 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

The proper analysis having been made, and defini- 
tions settled and accepted^ we shall then see that the 
introduction of a new species into a system would de- 
range the whole economy of nature in the region of its 
location^ unless its new properties and instincts (if we 
may make such a distinction) were adjusted to all sur- 
rounding things. And even then^ it may be doubtful 
whether^ in the nature of things, a new species could 
be introduced and preserved, unless there were a coe- 
taneous destruction of some old species — the intro- 
duction of new conditions, and a new adjustment 
of the organic families to surrounding nature and 
to each other. All this would be necessary, at least 
in the particular locality where the new life prop- 
erties and forms were introduced. The animal and 
vegetable kingdoms of nature are a unity in particular 
locations, and perhaps as a general whole. They are 
a unity by the interlocking adaptations of one part to 
the other. A liyhrid can not continue^ because things 
are not adjusted to its mixed nature. The conditions 
of nature favor variety in form and feature, but resist 
any interposition of new properties and parts. All 
organized things would lose definite properties and 
parts, if the integrity of species could be violated — 
natural objects in the organic world would become a 
conglomeration of monstrosities ; and science, in rela- 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 75 

tion ta the parts^ processes^ and laws of the organic 
kingdoms, could not exist. The forms of matter may 
change below the line of organization ; but when new 
properties are developed into new forces, which assimi- 
late matter into new forms, then the new individual 
needs to be balanced and adjusted to other organic 
bodies and to inorganic nature, and the wisdom and 
power interposed to accomplish the end is the preroga- 
tive of the Divine mind. 

With this notice of the proper definition and con- 
nection of natural ^^ properties,'^ ^^ forces,'' and ^^ laws," 
and the relation of these to the introduction of new 
species, we will notice the evidences of the instrument- 
al character of law and force in the process of crea- 
tion. An illustration will set the subject distinctly 
before us : 

ILLUSTRATION OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE DEVELOPMENT 
THEORY AND DIVINE INTERPOSITION ACCORDINO TO LAW. 

The steam-engine — simple at first in its form, and 
adapted to few purposes — has become complex in the 
structure of its machinery, and varied in the applica- 
tion of its power. But no new mechanic forces, no 
new dynamic laws, have been originated ; by new ad- 
justments, and the addition of new parts adjusted to 
the others, designed and arranged by the mechanist, its 



7^ ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAU 



SE. 



powers have been increased^ its form and movements 
improved^ and its accomplishments greatly varied. The 
improvement of the engine^ from the first simple mech- 
anism of Watt up to the last noble structure placed 
on board an ocean steamer^ has been effected by grad- 
ual development. The advance has been produced by 
reconstructing the machine with improved parts^ and 
by superadding one improvement to another. The ad- 
ditional parts added by the designer developed the 
force in new directions^ which were adapted to the ac- 
complishment of new purposes. There are series of 
advances in different parts and processes of the mech- 
anism, which may all be traced back as modifica- 
tions and improvements of the first simple form of the 
machine. 

Now, does it ever occur to any one that the perma- 
nent laws of things, or any of the forces of matter, 
would have added the new parts, diversified the forces, 
and improved the engine, almost to perfection, in its 
adaptations ? The fact that the laws of matter are 
immutable in their nature and mathematical in their 
measure, renders such a supposition absurd. The final 
end was reached by a designing mind, so locating and 
adjusting matter and force in the mechanism as to ad- 
vance its form, power, and adaptations, from a low to a 
high degree of perfection. 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 77 

INTERPOSITION OF FORCE REGULATED BY LAW, A FACT IN 
MUNDANE PROGRESS. 

But in order that our present induction may be 
removed from questionable premises — removed even 
beyond the domain of the Lamarkean hypothesis of 
the self-adaptation of organic forms to conditions of 
inorganic nature — we will confine ourselves mainly to 
progress in the conditions of the earth's surface^ to the 
design manifest in the advancement of the earth from ^ 
the lowest to the last mundane conditions. "Whatever 
may be said about the question how far organized 
beings may adapt themselves to their circumstances^ it 
will be admitted on all hands that the forces of nature 
operate upon inorganic matter in specific and determi- 
nate modes and measures. Safety and certainty 
throughout the universe depend upon this fact. 

We shall endeavor to show that there has been pro- 
gress in the physical conditions of our globe^ and in the 
adaptation of the earth's surface to the uses of ani- 
mated beings ; then^ if the forces of matter have been 
used instrumentally to accomplish by their operation 
an intelligent end^ a Governing Mind^, above and apart 
from the forces and laws of nature^ will be made man- 
ifest. 

We inquire : In the advancement of the earth from 



78 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

its primitive to its present condition^ have physic-al 
forces and laws been used as instrumentalities to ac- 
complish ends in which design is clearly perceived ? 
If an affirmative to this inquiry can be established^ it 
will be proved that such phrases as ^^ creation by law^^ 
can have no other import than that attached to sec- 
ond causes in the work of creation. In collating the 
facts^ as we have before stated^ we shall notice main- 
ly the agency of physical forces^ in order that the 
question concerning the adaptive proclivity of living 
beings may not intervene. 

The disturbance of the earth's crust by igneous 
agency — the turbulence of the primitive seas^ occa- 
sioned by disruptions and elevations from below — the 
first elevation of dry land^ and the succeeding changes 
of position in land and ocean^ were all effected by 
physical forces. This constant change in the success- 
ive conditions of the earth continued until the drift 
formation, which immediately j)receded the appearance 
of man upon the globe. 

Assuming, then, what no one will doubt, that all 
these changes have been effected by physical forces, 
which possess in themselves no adaptive capability, we 
inquire : Have natural forces and laws been so con- 
trolled and applied as to luorh out a condition of things 
loliich evince the presiding agency of the Divine mindy 



ON UNITY I.N THE CREATING CAUSE. 79 

adjusting all tltc changes from first to last in vieio of a 
future definite end ? 

The disruptions which threw up the mountains, and 
elevated portions of dry land from beneath the seas, 
were events isolated in time and place^ and occurring 
icithout connection loitli each other in any physical sense 
ivhatever. Each produced a single, separate result, 
which in itself could be of no value in accomplishing 
any intelligent design i yet the whole process produced 
a final result so obviously marked by designing Intelli- 
gence, that it is difficult to perceive how such testi- 
mony can be doubted or disregarded. If an end, 
marked by obvious indications of design, is accom- 
plished by the interposition of blind forces, isolated in 
time and place, then certainly the connection in the 
plan and the design in the final end must inhere in a 
mind superior to these forces and laws. 

We come now to notice a single advancing process, 
in which different disrupting forces and matter affected 
by various laws are combined in producing a common 
and designed result. 

The elevation of one portion of the surface and the 
depression of another gathered the water into seas and 
separated the dry land. The fractures of the strata, 
the upheaval of hills and mountains, and the currents 
created by these, produced living streams of water be- 



80 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

low and above the surface. Without this varied sur- 
face aspect^ and without these springs and streams of 
living water, the earth, or rather the universal ocean, 
could have been inhabited only by inferior species of 
living things. 

Again : The agitations of the strata, the seas and 
the atmosphere, caused the sedimentary rocks to be 
laid down upon the indurated granite. Generally 
speaking, these rocks are softer in their texture, ex- 
hibiting stratification and cleavage, and becoming in 
all respects better adapted to economic uses, as they 
rise from lower to higher formations. 

Again : The fractures and veins, especially those 
produced in the lower strata of rocks, are filled fre- 
quently, in primitive regions, with breccia, mingled 
with metallic ores. In higher series the most useful 
ores are deposited in sedimentary beds. Limestone 
and saline rock are likewise intermingled sviih other 
strata in almost every region of the globe. The ores, 
subsequently to their location in the different form- 
ations, have been made accessible by convulsions from 
below and the erosion of waters above. In the prim- 
itive regions they are located by one force ; in the * 
secondary region by a different one ; yet in all regions 
the necessary ores are located : so that to obtain them 
develops human faculties and promotes human in- 



ON UNITY IN THE CHEATING CAUSE. 81 

terests ; and, being obtained, they subserve ends which 
intelhgent beings alone can appreciate and accomplish. 
Again : Before many of the great upheavals had oc- 
curred, the surface was covered to a great extent 
v/ith shallow seas and basins of water. These tepid 
waters and the moist atmosphere, undoubtedly sur- 
charged to a greater extent than now with carbonic 
acid, were conditions adapted to produce in these 
warm basins, and upon the new, rich surface, an enor- 
mous growth of vegetation. Growing upon the ac- 
clivities, and accumulating uj)cn itself in the shallow 
seas for ages, masses of vegetable matter covered vast 
areas of the earth's surface. This exuberant vege- 
tation w^as of no value to any thing formed in connec- 
tion with it, but its preservation in view of human uses 
was almost, or quite, a necessity. By some process, 
the character of which we do not now fully understand, 
this vegetation was accumulated and preserved from 
decomj)Osition, and finally imbedded safely in the crust 
of the earth. Elevations and depressions of the sur- 
face, comparatively quiet in their movement (such as 
would not destroy but preserve the vegetable treasure), 
overlaid the accumulated masses with strata of rock ; 
thus preserving in the earth, by the instrumentality 
of physical forces, the fuel treasure for the fature man. 

Again : The coal-basins are located mainly in the 

4* 



82 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

temperate and colder latitudes, where a frigid atmos- 
phere during a portion of the year requires the use of 
fuel. Within the tropics, where the temperature is 
adverse to human enterprise, and where artificial heat 
is scarcely needed, fossil fuel scarcely exists. Thus 
there are indications of a Power controlling natural 
forces in the conditions which produced the enormous 
vegetation of the coal-fields, in the location and lati- 
tude where it was accumulated, in the convulsions 
which covered it, and, again, in the cracks and cat- 
aclysms which produced the valleys, and exposed the 
fuel in the side-hills, and near the surface, accessible 
to human agency ; and yet all was accomplished by 
the agency of blind forces, isolated from each other in 
time and space, operating in different forms and meas- 
ures, but their action controlled and their results com- 
bined so as to produce a beneficent result. 

Again : "What are sometimes called the economic 
deposits- — -a formation including iron-ore, coal, and 
limestone — receive this designation from the fact that 
these auxiliaries of human enterprise and industry are 
generally found near together ; it being almost invaria- 
bly true that coal and iron, especially, are found in 
close proximity. The coal necessary to fuse the ores, 
to propel machinery, and to work metals into form, is 
deposited near the ore-bearing strata ; and these two 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 83 

are often accompanied by the limestone necessary for 
material where buildings and machinery need to be 
erected. Thus the most important deposits which the 
earth contains^ and which, from their relations to each 
other for economic purposes, need to be together, are 
found located in the place and in the form adapted to 
subserve the great economic ends of human society. 
Although diverse as possible in their nature, each one 
from the others, yet the uses of the one in many re- 
gions can not be developed without the others ; hence 
their juxtaposition, as well as their various adaptations 
to develop man's faculties and to supply his wants, 
indicate the intelligent forecast of a designing Mind. 

Again : The last catastrophe, or drift- wave, accom- 
plished an ultimate end by combining and using the 
results of all previous disturbances. It fitted the earth 
for cultivation by laying upon its temperate regions a 
coating of arable soil. Soils, in order to yield a com- 
pensating return to the cultivator, must be composed 
of various elementary ingredients. Nothing can be 
produced in unmixed clay, or sand, or lime. Earths 
composed of all these mingled together, and containing 
portions of iron and particles of salts, constitute the 
soils best fitted for culture.'*^' By the action of all jDre- 

* " I found the soil taken from a field at Sheffield Place, remarkable for 
producing flourishing oaks, to consist of— in 100 parts: Silex, 56; alum- 



84 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

vious catastroplies the rocky strata of the different 
formations^ especially the softer sedimentary rocks^ had 
been broken^ and their smaller fragments pulverized. 
By this process detritus of all the varieties of rock 
which the earth contains had been produced^ and the 
soil ingredients, which needed to be mingled, lay at the 
bottoms of the mountains, and upon the floors of the 
oceans. Before the drift, soils in particular localities 
had been compounded, but the rocks were generally 
composed of constituents much more homogeneous 
than the drift. A final catastrophe, produced by physi- 
cal forces, and wide-speading in its sweep, caused stu- 
pendous waves, probably of ocean from the polar re- 
gions, laden with ice, to pass over most of the habitable 
regions of the globe. By this deluge the sand, lime, 

ine, 28 ; carbonate of lime, 3 ; oxide of iron, 5 ; vegetable matter, 4 ; 
water, 3." — Sir H. Davy. 

Analysis of Soils from Good to Medium, — The right-hand figures are an 
estimate of their comparative jDroductiveness. — From the Rational Hus- 
"bandman. 



No. 


Clay. 


Sand. 


Carbonate 
of Lime. 


Organic 
matter. 


Value. 


1 


U.... 


....10.... 


4 


lU.. 


100 


2 


81 


6 


4 


.... 8^.. 


98 


3 


^9.... 


....10.... 


4 


6i.. 


96 


4 


.....40 


.22. 


36 


4 .. 


90 


5 


14 


....49.... 


10 


27 


Grass land. 


6 


20.... 


....6Y.... 


3 


10 .. 


78 


T 


58 

56 


36 

....30 


2 

12 


., . . 4 .. 


77 


8 


2 .. 


75 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 85 

clay, and other corominuted earths and metallic ox- 
ids, were taken up, mingled together, and spread as a 
surface-coating of soil over the continents. In some 
regions silex predominated, in others alumine, in others 
calcium — all mingled, more or less, with iron and or- 
ganic ingredients. The combined result was the pro- 
duction of good soils, and soils of various productive 
qualities. Thus the event occurred last before man 
which was needful to appropriate the product of pre- 
vious physical, animal, and vegetable changes, and by 
these to fit the surface of the earth for the residence 
of a cultivating being, such as man.*-*^' It combined in 
one formation of the highest economic utility the 
various results of previous igneous, atmospheric, and 
plutonic agencies — ^laid on the soil covering, and thus 
accomplishes ^ final end necessary to fit the earth for 
the residence of man as a cultivator. 

The physical causes of this last great change upon 
the earth's surface are still a subject of inquiry with 
the learned ;f but whatever they were, they produced 

* Among the various characteristics by which philosophers have en- 
deavored to distinguish the genus homo, would not the phrase "a culti- 
vating animal" — inchiding the capacity to cultivate both matter and mind 
into better than their original conditions — mark the genus by its most es- 
sential and important characteristic ? 

f We believe that an old theory, much discountenanced, will yet be 
seen to be natural to the phenomena, and less in discordance with the 
principles of science than has been supposed. 



86 ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 

the effect necessary to crown and close the series of 
changes which advanced the surface of the earth to a 
condition adapted to the faculties and wants of intelli- 
gent beings ; and as external nature is adapted like- 
wise to the moral faculties of men/-*^" intelligent and 
moral designs have both been accomplished by physi- 
cal agencies. But we can not suppose that physical 
forces and laws can produce intelligent combinations ; 
hence, if design be admitted at all, the conclusion re- 
sults as a logical necessity, that an intelligent Mind 
presides over, controls the forces, and imposes the laws 
of the material Vv^orld. 

THE CONCLUSION INTELLIGENT ENDS HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED 

BY THE INTERPOSITION OF PHYSICAL FORCES. 

This is only an outline view, in a single case, of the 
advancement of the globe from a chaotic condition to 
an end indicating intelligent and moral design, the 
process being accomplished by the intervention of 
physical instrumentalities. The argument might be 
varied almost endlessly, and accumulated to any degree 
of strength. In the vegetable and animal kingdoms 
of nature the same process, working to the same final 
end — adaptation to the uses of man — is apparent. 
The human mind could not have developed its me- 

* Chalmers's Nat. TheoL, b. iv. a 1, 2. 



ON UNITY IN THE CREATING CAUSE. 87 

clianical appetencies if man had existed before hard 
timber grew upon the earth. The connection between 
man's capacities and wants, and the domesticable ani- 
mals created with him, could easily be shown. We 
choose the single outline given, because physical forces, 
which have in themselves no adaptive powers, have 
been used to accomplish an adapted and complicated 
design. What has been said will give the reader an 
apprehension of the form and force of the argument ; 
and further reflection, we think, will not fail to 
strengthen the conviction that an intelligent Mind 
presides over the universe, adjusts the parts of the 
material fabric of our world, develops their forces, 
regulates the operation of forces by law, and uses 
them as instrumentalities^ ever working upward, and 
working out, by physical agencies, a plan which in- 
cludes intellectual and moral ends, and which there- 
fore proves the existence of an Intellectual and Moral 
Cause. ••' 

* Cudworth apprehends the point at issue in the days of Plato, and at 
issue still. The present efforts of materialists, in their ablest form, is noth- 
ing else than the "Democritic fate," exhibited in the forms of modern 
philosophy, and in the phrases of the English language. 



CHAPTER YI. 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE EVIDENCE SEEN IN THE PROGRESS OF 
CREATION RELATING TO THE ADAPTATION OF THINGS TO EACH 
OTHER, WHICH ARE NOT DEVELOPED OUT OF EACH OTHER, NOR 
CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER IN TIME AND SPACE. 

Viewing the development theory as apprehended by 
Lamark^ or by able and recent expositors of the doc- 
trine^ there are some facts which^ so far as we can see, 
can not be made consistent with any theory of progress 
by the development of one thing out of another. If it 
can be shown that the products natural to certain 
mundane conditions were not adapted to, nor appro- 
priated by, the things which co-existed with these pro- 
ducts in the same series — if the floral product of cer- 
tain strata is not connected with the fauna of the same 
series, while it is evidently connected with things ex- 
isting in future and separate conditions, then the the- 
ory which affirms progress by law, without the inter- 
vention of the Divine Mind, fails in a point material to 
Its validity. At least, all theories by which God would 



I 

4 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE EVIDENCE. 89 

be ejected from the presiding control of physical forces 
and physical progress are proved fallacious. The the- 
istic argument will surely gain strength if it can be 
shown that the organic product, and the physical dis- 
positions of things during a certain period, were not 
adapted to things then existing, but were adapted to a 
distinctive race of beings to exist in future and separ- 
ate conditions. 

The tenor of the preceding paragraphs will have 
suggested to the reader the peculiarities of the carbon- 
iferous formation when the earth was covered with a 
dense vegetation, composed of succulent plants, inter- 
spersed ^\T.th soft wood trees, allied to the pines and 
palms of low latitudes. 

THE CARBONIFEROUS SERIES LOCATED ENTIRELY SEPARATE FROAl 
MAN IN TIME AND PLACE, YET UNITED WITU HIM IN THE 
DESIGN. 

The carboniferous system of rocks contains material 
that, more than that in any other formation, is 
adapted to subserve human purposes and exercise hu- 
man faculties. There lie the limestone, the most pro- 
ductive iron-ores, and the coal-measures, which are 
almost a necessary element in human progress. Cer- 
tainly no one pretends to believe that the physical fea- 
tures of the carboniferous series was a development of 



90 ANOTHER EVIDENCE SEEN IN 

one rock stratum out of another. The old red sand- 
stone surely did not develop itself into limestone, nor 
the coal into iron stone. Their proximity must have 
occurred through the interposition of a Power that can 
act independent of the natural connection of things in 
time and place. 

The succession of the strata, however, is not of so 
much importance in the argument. The adaptation 
of the carboniferous strata fo an end, without the 
formation in which they are deposited, is the main 
point to which we invite attention. 

It is well ascertained that during the period when 
the vegetation which produced the coal-measures grew 
upon the valleys, and accumulated in the basins of the 
surface, few land animals existed, and those mostly of 
the rejotilian family. There are some discriminating 
observers who would not assent to the statement that 
no land animals but reptiles existed during this period, 
yet no one informed upon this subject will doubt but 
that if herbivorous creatures existed at all, they existed 
in small numbers, and in but few localities. The fact 
is exceedingly remarkable, that during the existence of 
the most luxuriant flora that ever covered portions of 
the earth, there was no corresponding fauna to grow and 
multiply upon these exhaustless stores of vegetable 
pabulum. 



THE PROGRESS OF CREATION. 91 

Now, if this immense vegetable product had decayed, 
or had it been destroyed and mingled with other mate- 
rial, as the superabundant vegetable productions of the 
surface have been before and since, indications of a 
governing Mind, depositing in one series the material 
necessary for the inhabitants of another, would not 
have been so apparent. But this vegetation was not 
only produced without corresponding herbivora to con- 
sume it, but it was, as Ve have before noticed, pre- 
served safe from decomposition^ and separate from 
admixture^ and locked up in the crust of the earth, 
whence man, who alone can approj)riate it, now ex- 
humes tho hidden treasure. Nor this alone. The de- 
sign is remarkably obvious in another point of view. 
The material of the carboniferous series is the only 
product of the earth upon which human progress and 
development are greatly dependent, which can not be 
produced upon the surface in sufficient abundance to 
supply human wants. In temperate latitudes, where 
human industry and advancement are secured by the 
greatest variety of subsidiary means — where population 
becomes dense owing to the productiveness of the soil 
and the facilities for manufactures, the vegetable fuel 
of the surface alone is not adequate to the purposes of 
human enterprise, and of man's best social condition. 
The fuel product of the surface must be removed in 



92 ANOTHER EVIDENCE SEEN IN 

order to the purposes of cultivation ; and the increase 
of population in any temperate region^ and even in 
new countries recently subjected to civilization, soon 
exhausts the suj)ply.''''' Hence, from the nature of 
things, human energies could not be developed in the 
best manner, nor the race advanced to the best social 
and moral position, without supplies of fuel helow the 
soil^ which might supply the deficiency of surface fuel. 
"Without this deposit of fuel l)elow the surface, human 
invention and industry could not have been fully stim- 
ulated, the mineral resources of the earth could not 
have been fully used, and mechanic arts and enter- 
prises would have been sadly impeded. 

These considerations, showing that series, widely sep- 
arated in the physical progress of creation, are united 
in their adaptations to the wants of man, as a cultivat- 
ing and manufacturing being, we hope may aid to pro- 
duce conviction that the coal-mines of the carbonifer- 

* As an instance of the fact here referred to, a striking illustration is 
presented in the rapid progress of an agricultural and manufacturing pop- 
ulation in the United States of America. In the State of Ohio, for in- 
stance, the whole area of which was once covered with a dense forest, 
the timber is now becoming scarce. Where once ten dollars an acre 
were given for removing the w^ood, ten would now be given to have it re- 
stored. And if the immense coal-beds which underlie the south-eastern 
portion of the State did not exist, wood would soon be exhausted. In 
such an event, the rich and extended deposits of iron in the State could 
not be appropriated, manufacturing interests would be seriously damaged, 
and agricultural interests impaired. 



THE PROGRESS OF CREATION. 93 

OTIS series were designedly accumulated in l4cw of 
human wants, and in adaptation to fore-determined 
human characteristics. Myriads of ages before man 
was created, this provision, made for his wants and 
adapted to his faculties, was located in form and place 
where it is needed. The provision was likewise made 
out of connection with the ordinary laws of animal 
want and supply, and the product located in a separate 
series from the consumer. Thus we recognize an In- 
telligent Mind who knew the end from the beginning, 
who presided over the physical and organic progress of 
the earth, and who adjusted things not always in rela- 
tion to each other as co-existing entities ; but while 
sometimes they are neither adjacent to each other, nor 
developed out of each other, they are always found in 
co-relation to the final end of the whole scheme. 

The same adaptation is seen in the ores deposited 
in series of rocks anterior to the existence of man. 
There were no co-existing species of things whose uses 
were subserved by the ore-bearing strata. The exertion 
of power by which they were located was a useless 
expenditure of force, unless that power was expended 
in view of the future when man should exist upon the 
earth. The ore deposits, in situ, have no end in con- 
nection with organized beings if man does not appro- 
priate them to his own uses. It may be said that 



94 ANOTHER EVIDENCE SEEN IN 

metallic constituents are valuable parts of some or- 
ganic structures^ but this fact has no connection with 
the masses of ore located in veins and in sedimentary 
deposits. These, like the coal-measures, have supplied 
ingredients for soils, and thus subserved important 
structural purposes, while yet the immense masses of 
the deposits being en masse^ are thereby of precious 
utility as an adapted means of human progress. In 
the economy of nature as a whole, these deposits are 
arranged as evidently in adaptation to human facul- 
ties as the eye or the ear is adapted to the ends con- 
templated in fitting the faculties of the body to ex- 
ternal nature. The magnetic properties of iron, also, 
have uses and adaptations which human faculties alone 
can appreciate— uses without which the products of 
the earth, indigenous in different climes, could not be 
rendered subservient to human enterprises, or to the 
general benefit of the human races. Civihzation would 
not become general, nor would all the resources of dif- 
ferent latitudes and soils be developed, if the magnetic 
affinity did not exist to aid the progress of human 
industry and human enterprise, by guiding men in 
their efforts to supply the demand in one region of the 
earth for the productions of another. The magnetic 
polarity was constituted so long ago as the present 
form and motions of the earth were established. It 



i 



THE PROGRESS OF CREATION. 95 

was laid in tlie foundation^ structure^ and laws of the 
physical universe ; yet the peculiar affinity by which the 
needle trembles to the pole had little or no connection 
with the feculties or the well-being of any creature^ 
until the progressive development of the human mind 
brought out its cardinal adaptations to civil divisions 
of the soil, and to the safe transit of the ocean. 

Similar views in relation to the location of common 
salt, and other ingredients of early formations which 
jfind adapted uses in the animal economy of the present 
series, might be presented. The cases already adduced 
are suiB&cient to define the course of argument, and to 
authorize the statement that there are evidences in the 
process of creation, that things united in the final 
design are not always connected in development the 
one with the other ; but that things disparted from each 
other, in time and in formation, are connected in the 
general plan and final end : thus evidencing the control 
of the Supreme Being, who knows the end from the 
beginning, and uses natural forces and laws as instru- 
mentalities in accomplishing the great scheme by which 
the earth was fitted for the residence of man. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY 
LAW, OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONE SPECIES OUT OF AN- 
OTHER. 

On the supposition that creation has advanced by 
the development of a higher species from a preceding 
lower one, let us look a moment at some difficulties 
which intervene between the initiation and the consum- 
mation of the line of progress. 

THIS THEORY MUST ASSUME THAT ALL DESIGN AND ADAPTATION 
IN THE ORGANIC WORLD WAS LATENT IN THE FIRST CELL. 

If all organic life has been developed consecutively 
upward from a first nucleated cell, or from any other 
form of primal germ, then in that first ovum the whole 
organic creation was contained in embryo. Every 
germ contains all the characteristics which can be de- 
veloped out of it. Conditions could not develop, out 
of the primal egg, forms the seeds of which were never 
in it. The seed and the power were latent there, and 



DIFFICULTIES OF ANY TIIEOIIY, ETC. 97 

needed only development to exliibit in succession all 
the varieties of living beings. And not only tliis^ l)ut 
every primal ovum, from the first one until now, has 
contained a world of organic being in itself. If it be 
said that the egg-cell of a certain animalcule and of 
man are the same in form/-'*' while the product of the 
one is a mote, and of the other a mammal — if the 
statement be designed to prove any thing in connection 
with the theory of development, it must be, at least, 
that the essential germs of higher species are still the 
same as those of lower or the lowest species, and that 
the difference of the product depends upon difference 
of time and upon conditions in gestation. But if all 
things have been developed out of one prime nucleus, 
then the various conditions of gestation, as well as the 
product of gestation, proceeded from the same nucleus. 
The conditions of gestation are the conditions of the 
parent ; and the parent, with all her peculiar powers, 
was developed out of the pristine germ. Whether, 
therefore, gestation stops short with the animalcule, or 
advances to the product of a mammal, we see not but 
that, according to the theory, every cell has in it every 



* "An animalcule — the volvox giobator — lias exactly the form of the 
germ, which, after passing through a long foetal 'progress, becomes a 
complex mammifer of the highest class." — Vest of the History of Ore" 
ation, p. 185. 

5 



98 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 

variety of life, and every variety of maternal condition. 
If this is not true^ it is because the theory in question 
is not true. The theory assumes a cellular nucleus for 
creation, and whether primal cells be uniform or multi- 
form — if from one all organic creation has been devel- 
oped — and if external form be evidence of identity in 
nature, then from the cell of the volvox globator dif- 
ferent conditions would develop all species of animated 
beings below man, from the globator up to man. 

But further than this, and apart from conditions as 
means of development, there are, in the properties and 
substance of the cell itself, clear manifestations of 
design to be accounted for. If all vegetable and 
animal life expanded from a first nucleus, then vege- 
table pabulum in quantity and quality is adjusted to 
the animal digestive apparatus. These adjustments 
are various and intricate, and must have existed to- 
gether in the first cell. And after the beginning, all 
along the line of advancing life, there are various new 
adjustments of sexes and other inter-animal adapta- 
tions, which occur long subsequent to the time when 
the ovum treasure bursts into the lowest link of life. 
At the points where the new sexual adjustments began, 
tivo individuals J both different in species from tlieir 
parent^ and both sexually adjusted to each other ^ must 
have been developed at once ; or the mother must have 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 99 

been produced from a parent different from herself^ and 
at the same time containing in lieself sexual ova^ the 
product of which was to be different from the parent in 
which were developed both the mother and the ova. 
Now, assuming that design implies a designer, does it 
relieve the difficulty, or help the reason of the case 
in any way, to say that God, or nature, imparted these 
properties and laws of adaptation to the nuclei in the 
primal cells of things, and so constituted them, that 
they would remain latent until adapted conditions 
should develop their properties ? Is not the supposi- 
tion more rational, that the seeds of species were pro- 
duced with the conditions that were adapted to develop 
and sustain the parents and the progeny ? 

Again : If it be granted that the chain of organic 
life, with all its balanced properties and numerous ad- 
justments, proceeded upward from a nucleated cell, 
what law constituted and concentrated all the balanced 
and adjusted properties of things in that one primal 
granule ? Nature must have gone through a synthetic 
process, and combined all life in the seed, before she 
began the analytic process to develop all life from the 
seed. But did it not require as much intelligence and 
as many interpositions of the Divine Mind to create, or 
even to select and adjust, the properties in the first 
cell, so that the various species of things could be de- 



I 



100 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEOKY 

veloped out of it, as to create and adjust the same 
number of species at the times in which they actually 
began to exist ? We have shown, we think, that God 
controlled and acted directly, in applying the forces 
which produced the separate and successive conditions 
of the earth ; but if He acts directly in producing, by 
the instrumentality of physical forces, the material con- 
ditions necessary to sustain the different species of 
things, is it not a most rational analogy to suppose 
that the higher Divine prerogative of imparting life 
properties to the new species themselves was effected 
by a present act of Divine Power ? "Would not the 
Divine Author of both physical conditions and organic 
forms act as immediately in producing new species of 
life as in producing new conditions in which life was to 
be developed ? 

ADJUSTMENT BY DIVINE POWER NECESSARY IN ORDER TO DEVELOP 
LATENT PROPERTIES INTO LIFE-FORCES. 

But, furthermore : If it were admitted that the or- 
ganic properties of things were latent in matter, it still 
requires the adjustment of the different elements in 
which they inhere to develop these properties. Adjust- 
ment in time, place, and measure, are necessary to 
develop properties into specific forces, whether they be 
physical or life forces. The Creator, then, in the orig- 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 101 

ination of each species, must make a new adjustment 
of things, by which the specific forces and forms of 
organized beings are produced ; so that the new de- 
velopment of organic forces, and the institution of new 
organic laws and instincts, are a sine qua non in the 
production of each new species which possesses dis- 
tinctive characteristics. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF MOST LIVING SPECIES AT SEVERAL POINTS IN 
CREATIVE PROGRESS NOT CONSISTENT WITH THE DEVELOPMENT 
THEORY. 

Again : There are distinct and decisive interruptions 
in the line of creative advance. In two or three in- 
stances, at least, the catastrophes vv^hich shattered the 
fabric of the earth's crust changed the position of the 
sea and land, and altered the temperature from torrid 
to frigid degrees, destroyed almost, if not totally, the 
living species of things. But few living creatures sur- 
vived the catastrophe which preceded the old red sand- 
stone ; and it is really doubtful whether any — if we 
except a few low moUusks — survived the devastating, 
changes which affected the air, earth and sea^ when the 
drift was deposited ; yet, after the drift, the four great 
orders of animal life start at once into new forms. It 
is absolutely certain, to our own mind at least, that 
after this period there was^po gradual development 



102 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 

from the lower species up again to the point where the 
catastrophe found and destroyed preceding species. 
Were this the case^ we should certainly find traces of 
development from moUusks to mammals subsequent to 
the drift. But instead of this^, well-ascertained facts 
certify us that the genera of the new animal families 
start at points equal to^ or in advance of^ old forms ; 
and various species commence at once^ and in different 
portions of the globe. 

Now^ if it be said that the new conditions were 
more favorable to higher forms^ this undoubtedly is 
true ; but then^ instead of developing something better 
out of lower forms^ they would be less favorable to old 
existing forms^ and^ according to laic^ so soon as the 
surface-changes occurred, degeneration^ and not ad- 
vancCj in old species, would be the results. 

Besides, as former sj)ecies were destroyed upon land 
and mostly in the waters, there w^ere no intermediate 
forms for the advanced species to spring from. If one 
species was developed out of any other, the highest 
must have been developed out of the lowest, without 
graduated, intervening links from the lowest upw^ard. 
This supposition is monstrous, and, we presume, will 
not be defended by any one. 

These are grave difficulties in the way of the devel- 
opment theory. The lofg is against development hy 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 103 

laiv ; and the facts sceru incompatible with this 
hypothesis of creation. 

THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY IS PANTHEISTIC, AND GIVES AN 
tNTELLIGENT LAW-SOUL TO ALL WORLDS. 

Again : In the economy of the solar system different 
bodies are in different stages of progress (and this is 
probably true throughout the physical universe) ; and 
as it is sujDposed by the most recent writers friendly to 
the development theory, that the same general modes 
and faculties of life exist in other bodies which obtain 
in our own planet, then those life-chains must be in 
different stages of progress, and, consequently, there 
must have been different stages of beginning in differ- 
ent planets. There must, therefore, be several causes 
of beginning in different planets, or one Supreme 
Cause over the whole. But if the forces of nature be- 
gin to operate at different periods, and the laws of na- 
ture are only the mode and measure of the forces, how 
can the laws of nature, or the forces of nature, be the 
cause of the beginnings unless force or motion be self- 
caused ? Whenever this class of writers, therefore, 
point to the forces or laws of matter, and say these 
were efficient in any creative act, they but renew the 
old pantheistic philosophy, which gives a material soul 
to each world, instead of a Sovereign, Intelligent Mind 



104 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 

to the Universe — a philosopliy which endows material 
forces with intelligence^ instead of assuming an Intelli- 
gence ahove natural force. The old Academy, long 
before the era of the light which Jesus brought into 
the world, reached this Ultima Tlmle of the undevout 
reason ; and Plato, the greatest of the ancients, at- 
tained to higher knowledge, and believed in the Beauti- 
ful, True, and Good, as a supreme, self-moving, and all- 
moving Unity — the Parent and the President of the 
Universe. 

THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE THEORY INCONSISTENT WITH ITS 
STATEMENT. 

It may, perhaps, be said that these alleged difficul- 
ties, so far as they have force, are not based upon a 
correct statement of the theory of creation by law. 
We are aware that different writers present different 
aspects of the development theory. Our difficulties 
lie directly against the ablest exposition of that theory 
which has been given to the public in our times. The 
'^ Vestiges of the History of Creation" — to which we 
refer — is not, as we suppose, oonsistent with itself; 
and certainly it is not with some of the supposed phe- 
nomena by which it is illustrated. The Acarus which 
Mr. Crosse is said to have created by law is one of the 
Articulata, and was produced, it is said, immediately 



WlllCn ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 105 

without passing from lower species up to its place in 
the life-chain of this theory. This is quite in advance 
of the point where they assume that the Creator began 
his work. If Mr. Crosse could begin with the Articu- 
lata^ and create an Acarus which had no parent, why 
may not the Divine Power accomplish as much ? If 
Mr. Crosse can form both germ and insect, by the same 
process, why may not Divine Power form both germ 
and mammifer ? (We do not wish to be irreverent.) 
But how is the achievement of Mr. Crosse consistent 
with the foundation-principle of the theory, that the 
lowest species of all is the parent of all — that all suc- 
ceeding species after the lowest polype are developed 
out of a preceding one ? Is it said that the conditions 
fitted to the production of an Acarus were furnished ? 
But the theory does not assume that the peculiar con- 
ditions which produced man produced him from inor- 
ganic matter, but from a preceding species ; and so 
with other species down to the first. ^' Undoubtedly,^' 
says the author .of the ^^ Vestiges,'' ^^ what we ordi- 
narily see of nature is calculated to impress a convic- 
tion that each species invariably produces its like'' — 
but — ^^ I suggest as an hypothesis already countenanced 
by much that is ascertained, and likely to be further 
sanctioned by much that remains to be known, that 

the first step was an advance under favor of peculiar 

6* 



106 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 

conditions from the simplest forms of being to the next 
more complicated^ and this through the medium of the 
ordinary process of generation'' 

A GOD OF LAW BUT NOT OF LIFE. 

Again : While a Creator is spoken of as a first cause 
of law, yet it is clearly stated, in pantheistic phrase, 
that this author ^^ can not separate nature from God 
himself/^ '^ He finds no God in any creative act, ex- 
cept the first one, which occurred long anterior to the 
creation of life upon the earth. He finds no God in 
providence : All things are created, developed, and con- 
trolled by law, as the efficient agent in all terrene pro- 
gress. The author does separate God from nature, and 
yet he says he ■" can not separate God from nature.^^ 
He must then believe that God acted once, and then 
^^fell asleep,''f or that the laws of nature were God in 
the beginning and law in the process of creation. It 
may be that this author will allow a Divine act in the 

* Finding the Edinburg Reviewer speaking of the whole works of 
Deity as "vulgar nature," I feel that the piety which such an idea ex- 
presses to my senses is only impiety to me, wlio can not separate nature 
from God himself; but it is not necessarily so to him, whose education 
has given him peculiar and, as I think, erroneous conceptions of this 
subject. — Seq. to Vestiges. 

f "Father fell asleep," instead of "fathers," would be a better sense of 
2 Pet. ill. 4. 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 107 

beginning, Loth of law and life ; still the main import 
of the book derives life from j^hysical agencies. 



THE MORAL SENSE OF THE AUTHOR RELUCTATES AGAINST THE 
CONSEQUENCES OF HIS THEORY. 

In the last paragraph of the Explanations by the 
author of the " Vestiges/' the moral sense and the 
intelligence of the writer are both apparent. After 
speaking in words that a fine intellect only can use, of 
man^ his power to do and to endure^ his faculties and 
affections, his graces and his aspirations, the thought 
legitimate to his theory comes out at last, and he ejac- 
ulates in relation to the subject of his thought, '^ Gone ! 
lost ! hushed in the stillness of a mightier death than 
has hitherto been thought of !'' '^' From the thought 

* At tho close of the Augustan age, when eclecticism had done its best 
in separating the good from all systems of philosophy, still the reason, 
unassisted by Revelation, wandered in unsatisfied perplexity in search of 
one personal God, and of the greatest good. The experiences of Clement 
of Rome, before his mind rested upon Christ, were a counterpart to those 
of this author. 

"I, Clement, was able to pass my first years in a moral course, since 
the thoughts that followed me from childhood called me off from pleasure 
to sorrow and exertion ; for there dwelt in me — I know not whence it 
came — the thoughts which reminded me frequently of death, that after 
death I should not be, and then no one would think of me, for eternity 
would involve all thiugs in oblivion. When did the world begin, and 
what was there before the world ? Was it from eternity ? Then it would 
last to eternity. If it was brought into existence, then also it would at 



108 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 

of this " mightier death'' the soul of the author seems 
to shrink^ and he adds, " But yet the faith may not 
be shaken ; that that which has been endowed with 
the power of godlike thought^ and allowed to come into 
communion with its Eternal Author^ can not be truly 
lost. The vital flame which proceeded from Him at 
first returns to him in our perfected form at last, bear- 
ing with it all good and lovely things, and making of 
all the far-extending past but one intense present, glo- 
rious and everlasting/' "What means this — ^' man in 
communion with his Eternal Author ?" Does it mean 
man in communion with ^^ laic V^ According to the 
theory, Grod is not the author of man in any sense, as 
much as he is author of the lowest germ of animal 
life. " Endowed with the power of godlike thought/' 
What means this ? Eeason, according to the author, 
is the product of material laws. Is God's thought like 
this ? And surely, if reason is the result of organic 
forces, it will be lost when that organism is destroyed. 

That the moral nature of the author, feeling the in- 
some time perish. And what would it be again after its dissokition, un- 
less, perhaps, the stillness of death and oblivion (that comfortless idea, 
which is found in several of the Oriental systems of religion, that the 
changing forms of individual existence will at last be dissolved into an 
unconscious All — thus universal death will be the ultimate result — all ex- 
istence will become an unreal specter), and, perhaps, something may then 
be which now I can not conceive of." 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. 109 

jury inflicted upon it, lias caused liim to ejaculate sen- 
tences inconsistent with his cherished theory, is one of 
the strongest evidences that that theory is not true. 
After uttering the passage, ^^ The faith may not he 
shaken, that that which has been endowed by the god- 
like power of thought, and allowed to come into com- 
munion with its Eternal Author, can not be truly lost/^ 
the author closes by giving the import of this reverent 
language as interpreted by his theory, ^^ The vital 
flame which proceeded from Him at first returns to 
Him in our perfected form at last.^' What means this 
^Wital flame ?'' Does it refer to the ^^fire mist,'' when 
our system first took on the rule of law, which, after 
having developed itself in material combinations, 
thence, through organic structures, finally produced the 
form perfect of man ? or does it refer to the vitality of 
the first organic germ which passes through each suc- 
ceeding species up to the last ? This primal flame, 
whatever it may be, returns in the forms of all men ; 
and not only this, but the vital chain, from first to last^ 
returns, ^^ making of all the far-extending past but one 
intense present.'' It is, we think, perfectly aj)parent 
that the introduction of moral conceptions into this 
theory is arrant nonsense, or else it makes nonsense of 
the theory itself. 



110 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY 



A GOD WITHOUT INTELLIGENCE CREATED INTELLIGENCE. 

But let US take another view of the difficulties of 
modern materialism. When it is said^ '^ Grod can not 
be separated from nature/' while at the same time He 
is affirmed to be '^the author and sustainer of nature/^ 
the import can not be that God has exercised any 
personal act of creation or control since gravitation 
first affected the material which formed our system ; 
or, if the theory be confined to the earth, then no creat- 
ive act has been put forth by the Maker since the 
first organic cell was formed, and that was not formed 
by the Creator, but by law. God is in nature, and in- 
separable from nature, and sustains nature ; hence the 
complement of natural phenomena, organic and inor- 
ganic, is all the personality which belongs to the God 
of this theory. Let us see the character of God as thus 
conceived : — 

If God is inseparable from nature now. He was in- 
separable from nature at all periods of the past : then 
what follows ? Why this ; Keason is a product of ma- 
terial development : then, before the existence of or- 
ganic forms, there was no reason in existence ; none, at 
least, in anywise connected with our planet. Intelli- 
gence was developed from lower susceptibilities to 



WHICH ASSUMES CREATION BY LAW. Ill 

higlicr instincts, and thence up to the Imman mind. 
Then, as a sequent of this doctrine, at early periods 
of creative progress by law, intelligence did not exist ; 
and if God can not be separated from nature, before 
nature produced intelligence, there was no intelligent 
God. The highest nature in existence is the highest 
being belonging to the organic kingdoms at any par- 
ticular period in the history of creation. During the 
saurian age the lizard mind was the highest in exist- 
ence ; and if there be nothing above and separate from 
nature, then the fish-lizard-god was for the time the 
supreme being on the earth ; or, at least, the supremest 
being that acted in connection with the earth. 

But is it said, that not only the laws and beings of 
this earth, but the laws and beings of our whole sys- 
tem are included in the idea ; and that, with this en- 
larged conception, God can not be separated from 
nature. Now, admitting the conception to be ex- 
panded, then, if God can not be separated from nature, 
He is in different states of progress or development in 
different parts of the universe. God is in different 
stages of development in the solar system at the same 
time ; and God and nature have together gone through 
different stages of development. This conclusion is the 
highest and best result of the hypothesis. 



112 DIFFICULTIES OF ANY THEORY, ETC. 



INSTEAD OF GOD CREATING NATURE, NATURE CREATES GOD. 

The legitimate ultimatum of this theory is, that Di- 
vine interposition being out of the question, and as the 
laws of nature are still developing organized beings into 
higher species, instead of man, as an individual return- 
ing to his Author as a vital flame, or in any other form, 
he will turn into something different in species from 
the present man. The laws of '^ natural development'^ 
will produce a being in advance of man ; and so for- 
ward, the latter product will rise above previous ones, 
until the laws of nature luill create a god^ instead of 
God creating nature. So far as the theory is compre- 
hensible these results are legitimate — logical products 
of the hypothesis of a progressive development of the 
creation by law. 

It is a relief to turn away from the inferences and 
sequents connected with such theories, and seek for 
more satisfactory conclusions and a truer hypothesis.* 

^ See Excursus on Hypotheses, especially the hypothesis of Pre-exist' 
ence, at the end of the volume. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CREATION" AND CONTROL BY DIVINE AGENCY. — SUSTEN"- 
ATION AND GOVERNMENT BY LAW. 

A BETTER HYPOTHESIS. 

We propound now^ as we tliink^ a better autlienti- 
cated hypothesis than that which we have been con- 
sidering — one more consistent with the attributes of 
God^ the faculties of man^ and the facts of creative 
history. 

Observing the species of fossil and living beings as 
they have appeared in succession ^ we learn that the 
faculties and forms of created things have advanced, 
not by graduation into each other, but by species spe- 
cifically separated from each other in their inherent life 
-properties, and in their relation to other things. 

We place, then, an active Supreme Mind over the 
whole plan of progress, from the first to the last, ad- 
justing the position of things, developing their proper- 
ties, and establishing their laws. We make the whole 
economy of creation upon our globe one design ; then 



114 CHEAT ION AND CONTROL 

the different advances in the process are marks of cre- 
ative power and wisdom^ proceeding from the beginning 
to the final consummation. The mind which acted in 
the beginning contemplated the end, and worked to 
that end by creation, adjustment, and control, through 
the whole life history of the past.*'*'' The final end is 
the object of the first act of creation as much as of any 
other act in the series ; and the cliaracter of the end 
contemplated from the beginning is testimony for the 
immutability and for the moral attributes of Grod.f 
If,- millions or myriads of ages in the past, when life 
first began, the end in view of the Divine mind was the 
same which is now in process of accomplishment, then 
God is one and immutable. If the chain of jDrogress 

* Ilumboldt says in his introduction to tlie third volume of " Cosmos," 
that " while Aristotle teaches men to investigate generalities, in the par- 
ticulars of perceptible unities, by the force of reflective reason, he always 
includes the whole of nature^ and the internal connection, not only of 
forces, but also of organic forms. In his book on the parts (organs) of 
animals, he clearly intimates his belief that throughout all animated 
beings there is a scale of gradation, in which they ascend from lower to 
higher forms." 

f "To study the succession of animals in time, and their distribution 
in space, is to become acquainted with the ideas of God himself. Now, ' 
if the succession of created beings on the surflice of the globe is the re- 
alization of an infinitely wise 2')lccn^ it follows that there must be a neces- 
sary relation between the races of animals and the epoch at which they 
appear. It is necessary, therefore, in order to comprehend creation, that 
we combine the study of extinct species with that of those now living, 
since one is the natural complement of the other." — AaASSiz and Gould's 
Frin, Zoology^ chap. xiv. sec. 2. 



BY DIVINE AGENCY. 115 

rises from lower to higher forms^ and thus reaches a final 
intelligent and moral consummation, then the process 
stands as means of accomplishment to the end, and 
God was the same wise and benevolent Being when 
saurians ruled the earth that He is now when man is 
monarch of the animated kingdom. All the forces of 
matter, and all the laws of nature, when established 
by Divine agency, perform their offices so long as their 
subjects exist. But the center of every new species of 
life, the new forces and adaptations which each new 
species exhibits, these were adjusted by Divine wisdom, 
and the new life-center itself was the immediate work- 
manship of God. We assume, then, that every new 
condition of the earth, from the first creation of matter 
and property upward, was designed and produced by 
Divine energy, acting by the power of natural forces, 
and that every species having new properties was, in its 
origin, an immediate product of Divine pov^er, the 
whole being sustained and governed by appropriate laws. 
Let us see whether the ascertained facts will not 
take form and relation under this statement. 

PROGRESS BEGINS IN TIME. 

The organic creation begins in time, and advances 
upward. If nature had exhibited one continued suc- 
cession of like species, with only those varieties which 



116 CREATION AND CONTROL 

are produced by difference of climate^ then the human 
mind^ without a revelation^ might find difficulty in 
separating God^ as a personal Beings from nature and 
her laws. The philosophical materialist might say, 
" Nature is immutable ; all things have continued the 
same from the beginning/'*^" Immutability is an attri- 
bute of nature^ and it is likewise an attribute of God. 
The past and the present^ both of nature and of God, 
are the same, "Who, then, can separate God and na- 
ture, when both the natural and the Divine are change- 
less and eternal ?'' But when it is proved that change 
is the order of nature — not change marked by same- 
ness, but by progress ; that there has been uj)on our 
earth, and within the limits of time that may be com- 
puted, a beginning and a progress, both of the inorgan- 
ic and organic realms of natm'e ; then, unless God him- 
self had a beginning and a process of development in 
nature. He is the author, and not the complement, of 
natural phenomena. And as the first step in the pro- 
cess had a design in itself, and a designed connection 
with the final end, then the inference is legitimate that 
a supreme Designer was before and above organic na- 
ture. And if there be design in first things, as well as 
last, and through the whole, then mind is above mat- 
ter, and plan before organization. 
* 2 Peter, iii. 4. 



BY DIVINE AGENCY. 117 

THE SUPREME BEING ACTIVE IN THE PLAN OF PROGRESS. 

Then again : If God exists He is active. He is ever 
active as a supreme mental and moral Being. Tlie 
negative of this, or the supposition that Divine agency 
and control ceased with the first creative act, would 
imply that there is no God. But if God is an ever-act- 
ive Being, He would act after as well as in the first 
creation. But if all things had been created at once — 
created perfect and immutable in themselves, and thus 
placed under immutable laws, there would have been 
no possibility of Divine activity subsequent to the be- 
ginning ; therefore, the first creation of things in a 
lower condition, from which a life-giving and a law- 
controlling God might advance them to higher order 
and beauty, and upon which, as a crowning result, an 
intelligent and moral system might be superinduced, 
would be the rational genesis of creation, deduced from 
the postulate that God exists, and is an ever-active 
supreme mind. 

FORCES AND LAWS, INSTRUMENTALITIES IN DEVELOPING- THE 
DIVINE PLAN. 

Again : In order to accomplish a plan it is necessary 
that the designing and controlling mind should under- 
stand the mode and effect of the agencies used in ac- 



118 CREATION AND CONTROL 

complishing the end. It is obvious to every one that 
no being could accomplish a particular end without 
uSng agencies which acted in a definite form and pro- 
duced definite results ; hence it follows^ that definite 
properties of matter ^ as second causes operating as 
forces under laio^ would be introduced as instrument- 
alities in developing the Divine plan on the earth. A 
supreme mind could thus use matter in such states and 
measures^ and apply force in such places and forms, 
and according to such laws, as would accomplish on 
earth the end contemplated from the beginning. Bea- 
son, the supreme as well as the finite^ makes rules for 
itself. 

ORDER OF ADVANCE BY DESTRUCTION AND CREATION. 

Again : In the nature of progress to a higher end, it 
is obvious that succeeding created forms must be di- 
verse from those which preceded them ; and in a series 
of ages of progress, commensurate with the known ex- 
istence of the world, there would be almost innumer- 
able forms of life, each succeeding genus, as a general 
rule, advancing beyond preceding ones. Now, when 
we take into the estimate the limited extent of the 
earth's surface, and likewise the fact that different con- 
ditions are adapted to different forms of life, it is clear 
that there would neither be space nor conditions to sus- 



BY DIVINE AGENCY. 119 

tain^ in continued existence, tlic myriads of species 
tliat tlie serial progress of creation lias required : hence 
the march of creation through time would proceed up- 
ward by destructions and neiv creattonSy the change of 
conditions upon the surface destroying the preceding 
sjDecies, or new species destroying the older ones. In 
one, or in many ways, the preceding species gradually 
or at once, must sink from existence as the advanced 
forms come in ; therefore the necessities of space and 
conditions required that preceding species, as a general 
rule, should become extinct as hisrher forms were intro- 
duced upon the globe. 

Such, in view of the facts and reasons of the case, is, 
in our opinion, a rational hypothesis of the Creator and 
the creation. Matter and its properties in the begin- 
ning ; force developed and laws instituted by the dis- 
positions of matter ; organic life and progTCSs from 
lower to higher forms ; that progress effected by the 
instrumentality of natural forces and laws ; advance 
by the destruction of lower and the introduction of 
higher species ; the w^hole produced, advanced, and 
controlled in accordance with a plan which bears the 
impress of a Supreme Creator and Grovernor of matter 
and mind. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TRANSITIOI^ FROM THE CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 

CONCERNING WHAT WE MAY KNOW OF THE FUTURE AND OF 
GOD FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THINGS VIEWED IN CON- 
NECTION WITH THE LAW OF PROGRESS. 

If the caj)acious and discriminating mind of Paley, 
without a knowledge that there was to be any future 
progress in creation^ had deduced from the structure 
and habits of things existing during the secondary 
geological epoch^ testimonies for the j)erfections of God, 
the evidence of Divine goodness would have been weak 
and unsatisfactory compared with that which Paley 
and his annotators have deduced from the j)resent 
forms and fitness of things. Yet all who believe in 
the supremacy of the Divine mind allow that the Infi- 
nite Being, who presides over the creation now, reigned 
and wrought through all the periods of the earth's his- 
tory. It is evident, therefore, that the created product 
of no single period in the earth's progress can exhibit 
either the best testimony or all the testimony which 



TRANSITION, ETC. 121 

nature furnishes for the being and perfections of God. 
Any one period in the history of creative progress is 
but one part of a great plan which includes the wliole. 
•As that plan is developed in time, growing toward per- 
fection witli the lapse of ages, to infer the character of 
God from a single period in the series would be but lit- 
tle better than to infer the wisdom of the mechanist 
from the adjustment of one set of wheels in a watch, 
without including the scope and final end of the whole 
mechanism. 

It is conceded, of course, that the conformation of 
each creature that has lived, or that now lives, is per- 
fectly adapted to the condition and relations in which 
the Creator has placed it. This is a perfect but a sub- 
ordinate adjustment. An individual part may be com- 
plete in itself, and at the same time be but a part of a 
great whole. Dr. Bell has exhibited, in a striking man- 
ner, the design according to which osseous mechanism 
and muscular power are adjusted in the human hand. 
Still the human frame, considered in the perfection of 
all its adjusted parts, and the whole viewed as the 
physical organism of an intelligent and moral being, 
would give plenitude and pertinency to the evidence 
for the Divine existence and attributes, which no one 
part of any created being could do. The final end of 
a whole plan, including the adaptations and fitness of 



122 TRANSITION FROM THE 

all its parts, is the highest testimony to the character 
of a designer who begins the structure with its ends 
and uses in view. 

The plan, then (perfect in itself though it may be),, 
included in the structure of any one creature, is a sub- 
ordinate and a subservient one. It may be necessary 
in the adjustment of a great scheme that there should 
be checks and balances. In a process of development 
there are stages and parts that are imperfect. There 
may be parts of a structure whose uses in themselves 
seem ignominious or injurious, while yet, in attaining 
the end of the scheme, their office and operation are 
profitable.'*^ 

Let us consider, then, the whole economy of creation 
from first to last, as one complete design, still in pro- 
cess of development. In a preceding chapter we en- 
deavored to exhibit an outline of this chain of pro- 
gress. Commencing with the lower forms in the great 
orders of animated life, we noticed the ascent, indis- 

* The argument which aims to avert the conviction that malevolence is 
indicated by the mechanism and final end of the fang and poison-sac of 
the viper, and other contrivances similar in aim, are in themselves of 
value ; but they would be strengthened and receive relief by allowing 
such instances of evil in the subordinate and individual subject to be 
classed as checks and balances necessary, not only in promoting the ends 
of life in the creature itself^ but that the creature, its mechanism included, 
are adapted to work out the grand economy of a creation advancing 
through lower stages up to the perfect. 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 123 

tinct in some of its ramifications^ but obviously tend- 
ing upward, until the structure is crowned by the crea- 
tion of a human being, possessing an intelligent and 
moral nature. We noticed that it was in view of the 
wants and faculties of man, ages previously to his ex- 
istence, that many portions of the creation had been 
formed and located. Let us inquire now whether 
there is evidence that the progress manifest in the Di- 
vine plan tends to a perfect physical and moral con- 
summation. 

When we find, by observing the processes of nature, 
that certain facts may be predicted of all the move- 
ments of physical bodies, or when the phenomena of 
life are produced continuously, according to certain 
methods, we call such general facts, in the order of 
things, laws. But when we find a method of- progress 
which, while its advance is certain, yet the advance is 
by change — by interposition — not by any method 
mathematically regulated — then the manifest progress 
is attributable to a principle or method of Divine oper- 
ation, and should be so designated, lest, being distin- 
guished in no way from the laws of nature, two things 
which are different should be confounded as the same. 
But in the things which we are now to say, the dis- 
crimination is not of great importance. Whatever 



124 TRANSITION FROM THE 

be the nominal designation of the method^ no one will 
be disposed to doubt the fact. 

The existence of the principle of progress, as we 
have shown, is certified by the history of all periods of 
the creation. From the beginning upward to man, 
progress in the general mechanism of animal forms, 
and in the properties of the life power, has marked the 
successive exertions of creative energy. Sometimes a 
link is lost or broken ; but a sufficient number are 
found connected in the series to mark the place of the 
lost link, and to furnish indubitable evidence that 
there are 

" Links of life through nature creeping, 
Serial steps progressing ever." 

From the lowest* vertebrate the structure rises to 
mammals and to man. The principle rests upon data 
as old as creation, and data that is constantly repeated 
during the whole history of life upon the globe. 

THE PRINCIPLE OF PROGRESS IN THE CREATION ULTIMATES 
IN THE PERFECT. 

The princi]3le thus ascertained is, in itself, evidence 
that the Divine plan covers the whole creation in all 
time. Not only are the different divisions of creation 
linked together and expanding upward, but all the dif- 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 125 

ferent families of the vegetable and animal kingdoms 
are united in one plan^ and adapted to each other. 
Each species is perfect in its place^ while at the same 
time it is balanced and adjusted with all other things ; 
and the principle of progress is over all. Thousands of 
species have ceased to be^ but they were links in a 
chain of life^ which, while it may have decayed at the 
bottom, it is still growing and ripening to a consum- 
mation at the top. The scheme of creation which has 
been in progress from the beginning covers all time, 
and includes all created things. Now as it is certain 
that progress in creation is a principle or method of the 
Divine operation, then, unless God has abandoned a 
method which has forever characterized his working, 
future progress is certain— progress to a consummation 
brighter and better than p^an has conceived. A con- 
summation for the birth of which all nature has trav- 
ailed from the beginning until now ; and nature still 
travails, and the birth-throes which will bring forth a 
better condition of body and spirit are coming on. 
The creation is made ^^ subject to vanity,'' or imper- 
fection, yet we wait in hope for that birth of the per- 
fect which will close and consummate the life-labor 
of the world.*'*' 

* Paul says — and if it may be interpreted in its largest sense, it is car* 
tainly an evidence of his inspiration — ''For we know that the whole 



126 TRANSITION FROM THE 

The existence of a principle of progress in the crea- 
tion being established^ it is unwarrantable to suppose 
that its operation will cease until it has produced per- 
fection. The fact that it is an established method of 
the Divine procedure is evidence of its stability. We 
may announce it as an axiom that the will of God is 
realized only in the perfeet. We have proved that the 
perfect in creation is attained by progress. The oper- 
ation of the principle^ therefore, must continue, until 
it has accomplished a perfect result. Such a result is 
not attained in the present constitution of things, hence 
we may confidently look for a further development of 
the Divine plan. 

PROGRESS OF EACH SPECIES IS NOT TO ANOTHER HIGHER THAN 
ITSELF^ BUT TO PERFECTION IN ITSELF. 

Apart from this legitimate and important conclusion, 
deduced from the history of the past and from the 
principles and reason of the case, there are evidences 
that each series of the creation is so framed, and the 
several species so related to each other, and to the laws 
under which they are placed, that each species, during 

creation groanetli and travaileth in pain together until now. And not 
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit; 
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, viz., 
the redemption of our body ;" in a future and better condition according 
to the promise of Christ in 2 Pet. iii. 13. 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 127 

its period on the earthy approximates perfection in form 
and faculty, while a general im2)rovement goes on in 
the animated creation as a whole. Thus, not only the 
whole series of things, but each species, advances until 
it has fulfilled its time and conditions on earth. This 
is especially obvious since the creation of man and the 
genera of creatures which were originated with him. 
The advance visible in the present series of the crea- 
tion is toward perfection in the proper faculties of 
present species, and to a complete occupancy of the 
conditions which the higher species fill. The j^rogress 
in each species is not toward another higher than itself, 
but to higher perfection in its oivn form and attributes. 
This fact, of the veracity of which we shall adduce 
some instances, is a plain testimony which may be 
added to those we have already noticed, that if there 
"be progress beyond the perfected species of any series^ 
it is not by transmutation but by creation. 

A brief synopsis of subjects will be sufiicient to show 
that causes are now interworldng, which will secure by 
their operation progress in the forms and faculties of 
the present species of things ; and hence, when the 
present species have reached their limit of attainment, 
and filled the conditions adapted to their constitutions, 
an advance of condition and of created life may be 
expected. 



128 TEANSITION FROM THE 

CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ARE AUXILIARY TO PROGRESS. 

The stronger of each species govern the weaker ; the 
best variety prevails over inferior ones. The instincts 
of the lower animals^ especially^ lead them to enforce 
this principle. Often the stronger destroy the weaker. 
Now, as the stronger of each species govern, and as 
progeny bears the physical characteristics of paternity, 
then other things being equal, present species will con- 
tinually improve. 

As in former periods of the creation so in the pres- 
ent, individual species — as the Dodo — ^have ceased to 
exist. Having accomplished the end of their being, in 
connection with the great scheme of the Creator, they 
sink out of the life-chain. 

Man, the last production of creative energy, is the 
enemy of all destructive and poison-bearing things. If 
man, therefore, with his present facilities to destroy, 
shall fully occupy the habitable parts of the globe, 
injurious species of animals will be subdued or de- 
stroyed. 

Thus, not only do species improve and injurious spe- 
cies diminish, but, by the laws of nature, the qualities 
of manhood will likewise advance. Individuals from 
families that are enfeebled by luxury, or by want of 
exercise in the open air, or by hereditary disease, are 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 129 

less prolific than the active^ healthy parent ; and the 
children they do beget are less likely to live and beget 
others. Thus the weak by indulgence or disease re- 
cede^ while the better in corporeity advance. 

The mingling of races improves the human constitu- 
tion in the general issue. On the American continent 
an admixture of bloody such as the history of man 
never furnished before^ is in progress. ^^ All kindreds, 
and nations, and tongues, under the whole heavens/' 
are to mingle in the new world, and work out a final 
result in the physical, mental, and moral condition of 
humanity, as perfect as the present constitution of 
things will allow.''' 

The laws of health and happiness are better under- 
stood by each succeeding generation.f In the present 

* Is it not true, likewise, that wars, when they are prompted by power 
and not by patriotism, draw mostly from the lowest and worst of .the 
human family : — thus bad seed is destroyed. 

f Macauley tells us that ''the term of human life has been lengthened 
in the whole kingdom of Great Britain, and especially in the towns. In 
the year 1685, not accounted a sickly year, more than one in twenty of 
the inhabitants of the capital died ; at present, only one in forty dies 
annually. The difference between London of the nineteenth century and 
the London of the seventeenth century is greater than the difference be- 
tween London in ordinary years and London in the cholera." 

M. Charles Dupin, in a recent paper read before the Institute, says that 
"from 1*776 to 1843 (sixty-seven years), the duration of life had been in- 
creasing in France at the average rate of fifty-two days annually, so that 
the total gain in two thirds of a century amounted to nine and a half 
yeai-s ; and that in no year of that period, whether during the Republic, 

6* 



130 TRANSITION FROM THE 

state of civilization all the experiences of the past are 
accumulated^ classified, and improved, in the present ; 
and with present means of intercommunication, and 
the influence of the printing press, retrogression is im- 
possible — advance certain. 

Many other items might be added — these are suffi- 
cient to show that the power of progress is still oper- 
ating by improvement of species, and by extinction of 
some species, and the numerical increase of better 
ones ; and hence, by analogy, when the present races 
have reached their limit in form and condition, a general 
change of conditions will again ensue upon our globe. 

If, therefore, we consider the present imperfect state 
of the creation — that the Divine attributes seek perfec- 
tion as an end, but that the present physical constitu- 
tion of things will not admit of ultimate general per- 
fection in the present series ; ''**' and consider in connec- 

the Consulate, or the Empire, did the annual increase fall below nineteen 
days." 

* It may be said in abatement of the anticipation of future good, that, 
under the permanent laws and relations of the solar system, only a certain 
degree of physical perfectibility is attainable upon our planot. But if the 
present physical condition of things upon the earth be not ultimate, as we 
have every reason to believe that it is not, then, without affecting *any 
lav) of the solar system^ the constituents of the atmosphere — the relations 
of light, heat — the magnetic and other occult principles, and especially 
the igneous dissolution and re-construction of the mundane fabric — may, 
by new adjustments, produce now conditions, which will sustain physical 
good and restrain physical evil 



C R P O 11 E A L TO THE SPIRITUAL. 131 

tion with this the fact that progress toward perfection 
is a principle of Divine procedure^ the operation of 
which still continues ; the advance of creation to the 
perfect will be put^ we think^ beyond question. The 
principle itself^ and the attributes of the Creator, 
assure us of the final result.*"' 

THE MORAL PERFECT THE END OF CREATION. 

There are yet other and higher considerations^ of a 
moral character, which indicate that beyond the im- 
perfect present there is a perfect future. The fact, as 

* " The doctriDG of a life to come, some persons will say, is a doctrine 
of natural religion ; and can never, therefore, be properly alleged to show 
the importance of revelation. They judge perhaps from the frame of the 
wo)id, that the present system is imperfect ; they see designs in it, not yet 
completed; and they have grounds for expecting another state, in lohich these 
designs shall he further carried on, and brought to a conclusion worthy of in- 
finite wisdom. I am not concerned to dispute the justness of this reason- 
ing; nor do I wish to dispute it." — T. Balguy, D.D., Discourse. 

So Bishop Butler, in his sermon upon Human Ignorance, says in a 
note: 

'■'■ Suppose some very complicated piece of work, some system or con- 
stitution, formed for some general end, to which each of the parts had a 
reference ; the perfection or justness of this work or constitution would con- 
sist in the reference and respect which the several parts have to the general de- 
sign. Or a part may have this distant reference to the general design, 
and may also contribute immediately to it. For instance : if the general 
design or end, for which the complicated frame of nature was brought 
into being, is happiness ; whatever affords present satisfaction, and like- 
wise tends to carry on the course of things, hath this double respect to 
the general design." 



132 TRANSITION FROM THE 

we have stated^ that the present condition of things is 
imperfect^ and that further advances is possible^ indi- 
cate that the Divine plan has not reached its fruition. 
This is clearly perceived when we consider man as the 
crown of the present creation^ and his intellectual and 
moral feculties as the latest and highest product of 
Creative Power. 

We have dwelt upon the advance in animal struct- 
ures and faculties. We turn now to the intellectual 
and moral nature of man — to attributes which place 
man supreme over the creatures and assimilate him to 
God^ having the knowledge of good and evil. The 
preceding processes of creation close with the introduc- 
tion of a moral nature. Creation has been developed 
upon a material basis up toward moral j)erfection. 
Corporeal natures have been lost — species and genera 
of mere animals have ceased to be. This indicates 
that the corporeal and animal structure of things is 
subservient to the moral^ as means are subservient to a 
higher end. The ultimate aim of the principle of pro^ 
gress is perfection of moral attributes ; and to this the 
corporeal organization of all thing s^ from the daicn of 
creation^ has been auxiliary. In the nature of man we 
find evidence both of a perfect future, and of the being 
and attributes of God. Let us notice these in order. 
First, what the nature of man reveals concerning a 



I 



C R P O E E A L TO THE SPIRITUAL. 133 

future better than the present ; and second, what it 
reveals concerning the moral perfections of God. 

PREVISIONS OF THE PERFECT IN MAN. 

There are in the soul of man previsions of the per- 
fect. The mind can, and the poet does, create scenes 
of beauty, of love, of sublimity, far beyond the present 
condition of things.''' If the pure-hearted poet had 
the power, he would actualize upon earth a condition 
of things where sweetness of affection, beauty of na- 
ture, might of intellect, and majesty of morals, would 
combine, as they never can in the present earth. The 
mind of man can in its present state create this ideal 
world of well-being and beauty, and people it with per- 
fect and happy beings. This, certainly may be taken 

* Is man a microcosm ? Do the best minds contain in themselves types 
of the past and future ? It would seem, at least, from some passages in 
authors of the highest style of genius, that scenes unknown to them, both 
in the past and future, were mirrored in the magic glass of their con- 
sciousness. Perhaps no man is able now to describe a scene, and the 
most singular creature of the saurian age, better than Milton has done it. 
Geology had not revealed the fact in Milton's day, that such a creature as 
the Pterodactyle ever existed. ISTow we have the restored osseous struc- 
ture, but who can give a more graphic description than the following ? — 

''The fiend 
O'er log or steep^ through strait, rough, dense or rare, 
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way ; 
And swims, or sinks, or toades, or creeps, OTflies^ 

Par, Lostj b. vii. 



134 TRANSITION FROM THE 

as an indication that there will be such, a condition, 
and that the soul of man is created capable of becom- 
ing a denizen of a better state. If no such condition 
can be realized or attained in the future, the nature of 
man is a sophism, because it foreshadows a future con- 
dition which is yet never to be attained. 

MAN CAPABLE OF APPRECIATING THE MORAL PERFECT. 

There is likewise a capability in man to appreciate 
moral excellence in advance of present attainment. 
Men often admire in others what they are unwilling to 
be themselves. ^^ Bad as the world is, respect is al- 
w^ays paid to virtue.'' Self-sacrifice for the good of 
others, or for the cause of virtue, has been canonized 
in all ages. Even among pagan nations, where the 
moral faculties are perverted by a false credence, the 
nature of man has spontaneously testified that there is 
in humanity a capability to appreciate the true and 
the good. Visions of a future good beyond the present 
condition have been the indigenous product of the hu- 
man mind in all ages. These visions, shaded by the 
colors of the peculiar theology of every people, have 
been consecrated by the human races as a part of a 
good man's inheritance in the future life. Man pro- 
duces from himself a moral future better than the 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 135 

present ; and if lie conceive of evil in the future^ it is 
only as the penalty of sin^ indicating that a sense of 
justice^ as well as of mercy, are mingled in his visions 
of the future state. 

SENSE OF THE PRESENT IMPERFECT IN MAN. 

There is likewise a consciousness in many men of the 
imperfections of the present state. Perhaps this is 
true of all men. A sense of the present imperfect 
moral condition of the human soul, and aspirations for 
a higher good have been expressed by deep thinkers in 
every age of the world. Grotius has collected many 
passages, in which the mingled convictions and aspira- 
tions of the old G-reeks and Eomans come out in the 
heart-utterances which they have put upon record.'*^ 

* Araspes the Persian^ in order to excuse his treasonable designs, says : 
" Certainly I must have two souls, for plainly it is not one and the same 
that is both evil and good ; and at the same time v^ishes to do a thing and 
not to do it. Plainly, then, there are two souls ; and when the good one 
prevails then it does good, and when the evil one prevails then it does 
evil." — Zen. Gyrop. vi. 1. 

" He that sins, does not do what he would ; but what he would not, 
that he does." — Epiotetus, En, ii, 26. 

So Ovid {Meta. vi. 19), in language used almost verbatim by the apostle 

Paul:— 

" aliudque Cupido, 

Mens aliud suadet. Video meliora, proboque ; 
Deteriora sequor." 
Desire prompts to one thing, but reason persuades to another. I see 
the good and approve it and yet I pursue the wrong. 



136 TRANSITION FROM THE 

THE SOUL OF MAN CAPABLE OF MORAL CULTURE IN VIEW 
OF THE PERFECT. 

Another indication that a perfect moral future is a 
part of the Divine design^ is seen in the fact that man 
is so constituted that his best condition in this life is 
realized by living under the influence of that faith 
which affirms a future moral state, purer and better 
than the present. Man attains his highest moral con- 
dition in this world by a faith which produces love and 
reverence for a pure Being who inhabits eternity ; by 
hopes which aspire after a higher perfection, and by a 
sense of responsibility which connects the trials and 
duties of the present state with the awards and em- 
ployments of the world to come. Upon the supposi- 
tion that God is a benevolent being, the thought can 
not be entertained that he would predicate man's best 
moral condition on earth uj)on hopes and convictions 
which are never to be realized. 

This thought is more obvious when we consider the 
present life as a state of probation or moral culture. 
We know it is* true, not only from revelation but by 
experience, that confidence in a better state to come 
renders the trials and conflicts which men bear in this 
world a blessing to those who endure the discij)line in 
view of a future life. The blessings which spring from 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 137 

earthly trials are grounded upon faith in God's charac- 
ter^ in connection with a future life. Without faith in 
the future^ evil in this world can not become a bless- 
ing. Can we suppose, then, that the moral world is so 
constituted that evil is turned to good by that which is 
not true ? 

MAN ACTUALLY IN PROBATION UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF 
CULTURE. 

The character of influences about us v/ill, by thought- 
ful consideration, admonish every one that this is a 
state of probation or moral trial. All are subjected in 
the present condition to temptations adapted to seduce 
to evil, or to suasion which induces to good. Within 
the limit of every man's observation are good and bad 
examples — good and bad books. Every man's heart is 
open, and every mgin feels the poAver of good and evil 
influence. Man is conscious of good monition and of 
evil suggestion in himself ; and it is a la.w of nature 
that the exercise of our moral powers under evil sug- 
gestion or influence, confirms evil habits and an evil 
disposition ; and so on the contrary, when men's moral 
faculties are exercised in obedience to good influence, a 
good character is formed. The present life, in the 
present condition of things, is, therefore, a state of mor- 
al formation. This is not only true of each Individ- 



138 TRANSITION FROM THE 

ual^ but the progress of the whole^ taking the sum of 
individuals and of generations in time, indicates that 
moral culture is advancing, and that the family of man, 
as a whole, are rising in the scale of moral excellence. '•*' 
Now, then, as human trials can only become a bless- 
ing by faith in the future — and as man as an individ- 
ual, and man as a genus, is advancing in good, and to 
good, by convictions which realize a better life here- 
after, who shall say that God has constituted man, in- 
dividually and socially, so that his best good arises 
from fallacious conceptions ? But if the convictions 
which produce man's best condition be true, then there 
is a future and better state for those whose culture is 
adapting their character to the condition hoped for. 

* No one can study human history without perceiving in the progress 
of society what we see in the geological advances of our earth — disrup- 
tions of human society ; certain nations and classes of men attaining the 
highest state which their fundamental convictions would allow. Streams, 
and sometimes disrupting floods of population, set in various directions — 
new strata of society are formed over large areas — the old disintegrated 
masses are formed in with the new ; and yet, amid all those changes of 
location, of condition, and of opinion, it is easy to see the Divine Provi- 
dence over all, shaping all social disruptions and formations so as to se- 
cure in the issue a general advance of the civil, social, and moral in- 
terests of men. There are, of course, in time and place, local advances 
and reactions ; but a general advance is the certain issue' of the whole. 
A recent writer has developed some of the principles by which the final 
advance from our period forward will be secured. It is the wisdom of the 
statesman and the glory of the church to give the principles of progres- 
sion proper applications. — Yide The. of Hum. Progression. 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 139 



THE SOUL OF MAN MAY RECEIVE A CULTURE HERE WHICH 
RAISES IT SUPERIOR TO THE BODY AND ITS TEMPORAL SUR- 
ROUNDINGS. 

Again : The soul of man can be elevated by culture 
to moral attainments beyond liis present circumstances, 
or to a condition which renders his present temporal 
surroundings unfitted to iis spiritual attainments. He 
can be cultivated until he becomes superior to the con- 
dition in which he is placed. He can follow light and 
cherish love until he draws from the objects of the 
spiritual world good beyond that which he can gain 
from earthly things. As a matter of fact, there is in 
the world a faith by which the '' substance of things 
hoped for" is drawn from '^ the evidence of things not 
seen.'" Whether men account the Christian Eecord a 
fable or a fact, still the statement will not be ques- 
tioned, that those who believe it may draw from the 
manifestation of love and purity in the New Testament 
a soul-culture and a spiritual benediction, beyond what 
all the treasures of earth can yield. Such being the 
nature of man, if the Christian Religion he not noio a 
revelation from Godj God ought to reveal it; because 
the spiritual appetencies of humanity demand the spir- 
itual 'pabulum which it furnishes. And as man is raised 
above his present condition by faith in a better world 






140 TRANSITION FROM THE 

and a better future, it is clue to man's moral constitu- 
tion that such a future shall exist. 

BY THE REVEALED CHARACTER OF GOD, MEN ARE ACTUALLY CUL- 
TURED HERE INTO FITNESS FOR A BETTER LIFE THAN THE 
PRESENT. 

Furthermore : Man is created capable of knowing 
and appreciating the attributes of a Divine Being, 
whose perfections are beyond the character of God, as 
that character is revealed in the present constitution 
of things. Now (as we shall show more fully hereafter) 
the character of Grod is the rational and only means of 
moral culture ; and if man can apprehend and ajDpre- 
ciate a Divine Being, perfect beyond what the present 
condition of nature reveals, and if this character is 
revealed^ we may infer that it is the design of the 
Maker that man, in his present imperfect state, should 
be cultivated into a moral character, which will fit him 
for a condition in advance of the present. In the 
love-sacrifice of Christ, as we shall see, there is a mani- 
festation of benevolence above that which can be 
learned from all that man can know of created things. 
Man can appreciate and aspire to this supermundane 
excellence ; and in the case of every one who possesses 
true faith (faith that moves the heart and will in ac- 
cordance and in consistency with the character of the 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 141 

tilings believed)^ the manifestation of God^ given to 
man in the present state^ elevates him to the character 
required by the future and better state. Thus^ con- 
formity to the character of God revealed in Christ . is 
conformity to the character of God ruling in a better 
state than the present ; a conformity which lifts the 
soul above the condition and surroundings in which it 
now exists, and above the qualities and natural pro- 
pensities of the present corporeity. It is thus fitted 
for the new creation to which it aspires in a better life. 
Unless, therefore, God fit men for a condition which 
shall never ensue^ there is a better life ~a life of perfec- 
tion beyond the imperfect present. 

Through the influence, then, of agencies at present 
*" existing, the soul may be elevated above its present 
corporeal vehicle, and raised out of affinity with the 
physical and moral condition of things in which it is 
placed. Men may, and some do, attain a spiritual 
state in this world, which demands, according to the 
laws of adaptation, a better physical organization — 
fitted to be the instrument of a mind which has been 
cultured into a better spiritual condition than the one 
natural to the genus. '•' 

* '• That which is bom of the flesh, is flesh ; and that which is born of 
the Spirit, is spirit." — St. Johii, iii. 6. PhiUppians^ iii. 20, 21. 



142 TRANSITION FROM THE 

GERMS OF A FUTURE AND BETTER LIFE PERCEPTIBLE IN THE 
SPIRITUAL CONSTITUTION OF GOOD MEN. 

It is well known to naturalists tliat Swammerdam^ 
by a process not necessary to detail here, discovered the 
lineaments of the butterfly in the caterpillar, even be- 
fore its metamorphosis into a chrysalis. 

This fact has its analogy in the spiritual economy of 
all good men.-*^" We say, all good men, because it is 
true that there are many of the human family who 
possess an inoperative instinct of immortality, but in 
whose bosoms no spiritual insight can discover the lin- 
eaments of a future life. We use the analogy, there- 
fore, only so far as it goes. But have we not in this 
analogy, viewed in the light of Swammerdam's dis-^ 
covery, a distinct intimation of the anastasis of those 
individuals of the human family in whose bosoms are 
found the germs of a life, the intuitions and habitudes 
of which differ from those of the present existence. 

The statement can not be questioned, that in the 
bosoms of those who are truly Christians there exist 
the germs and lineaments of angelic life. A new and 
distinct class of affections, hopes, and aspirations exist ; 

* It was ascertained by Raumer that an injury inflicted upon the 
chrysahs produces a defect in the future fly. And those who have ob- 
served know that in many species the greater number of nymphae utterly 
perish in their own pupce. 



CORPOEEAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 143 

or rather, the affections and asjocrations are detached 
measurably from earthly objects, and exercised upon 
new objects of life and love. 

The manner in which the lineaments of the butter- 
fly are attached to, or detached from, the body of the 
caterpillar, is a process ^wliich can not be observed ; 
neither can we discriminate in regard to the attach- 
ment to, and detachment of, the new life from our 
earthly hearts and habits : but one exists as really as 
the other. New appetites are developed, which are 
satisfied only with spiritual things. The conscience 
recognizes new obligations, which are of a spiritual 
character. There are new hopes and fears, and. a new 
direction of the will. So that, as a matter of fact, the 
moral powers of the soul are becoming detached from 
earthly things as their supreme good, while they are 
simultaneously developing themselves into the form 
and features of a new life. 

THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD IS PLEDGED FOR THE FUTURE 
AND BETTER LIFE OF GOOD MEN. 

There is another induction in this argument which 
connects it with the moral character of God, and to a 
mind possessed of moral culture it will have a high de- 
gree of conclusiveness. The constitutional instinct 
which God gives to the insect becomes operative in the 



144 TRANSITION FROM THE 

insect itself^ and secures for it the future metamoriiho- 
sis. The instinct in the animal leads it to a prepara- 
tion for the future life^ and the constitutional instinct 
given by the Creator verifies his truthfulness by the 
result which ensues. 

The earth-born worm^ which weaves for itself a wind- 
ing-sheet^ bids farewell to its present constitution and 
instincts^ and enters a chrysalis as its grave^ can not be 
supposed to have more knowledge than man, in the 
same circumstances, of the process of transmutation 
which issues in a new life. The two facts are palpable. 
God gives the instinct, and God vouchsafes the result 
of the preparation produced by that instinct. 

Now, in men is found this instinct of a future life, 
and in good men it becomes operative. It assumes the 
forms of hope, aspiration, and volition, which actuate 
them to a preparation for life beyond the grave. And 
if men do not regard during life the instinct of prep- 
aration for the future life, then, if they approach 
death in a state of sanity, conscience unfailingly 
charges them with a neglect or betrayal of their spirit- 
ual interests. 

Now associate these facts. The instinct of a future 
life actually exists in man. It leads good men to pre- 
pare for life beyond the grave. In the bosoms of good 
men are found distinct and clearly-defined elements of 



CORPOEEAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 145 

the angelic constitution ; tliat is^ life cherished by love, 
and exercised upon spiritual objects. Then, as God 
does not disappoint the instinct where it has been op- 
erative in the lowest of his creatures, but crowns the 
preparation with fruition in a higher life, can we sup- 
pose that a constitutional conviction, producing alike 
preparation in good men^ will not terminate in like 
manner ? Will not the Maker verify the conviction 
begotten by himself, and upon which his highest earth- 
ly creatures have acted ? " God is true ;'' and our 
faith may rise to assurance that the good man's mortal 
life terminates at the commencement of an existence 
of ^^ joy unspeakable and full of glory/' 

OUR CONCLUSION AUTHORIZED BY THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. 

This conclusion, we think, is verified by the teaching 
of the Christian Scriptures. The tone and tenor of 
the New Testament on this subject have not been fully 
appreciated ; j)erhaps not fully understood. The " cru- 
cifixion of the flesh f the '' putting on of the new 
man f the " groaning"' in the present condition to 
which nature is subject : — ^what mean these and similar 
inspired utterances in the Scriptures ? What is the 
import of the apostle's word, when he says that he ac- 
counts all temporal things but loss, and struggles ^^if 



146 TEANSITION FEOM THE 

by any means he may attain to the resurrection of the 
dead ?'' Did he not seek^ with intelligent aim, that 
moral condition in which the appetencies of the soul 
would demand a resurrection body, more perfect than 
the present^ and adapted to accomplish the will of tlie 
soul in the higher moral condition to which the apostle 
hoped to attain ? The preceding passages^ and those 
of similar import in the New Testament^ certainly 
sustain the conclusion to which our course of thought 
upon the processes and analogy of nature has brought 
us. 

We have no data to determine accurately the period 
of the consummation. Neither prophetic symbols nor 
natural indices can direct us to a specific period in the 
future. Centuries may yet be consumed in the process ; 
but still the fact^ we think^ is indubitable^ that man is 
exhausting the material"''' and filling the capacities of 
his present limited condition^ and advancing slowly^ 
but certainly, to the ultimatum of his development in 
the present state. This being attained at some un- 

* Calculations have been made to show that the coal-fields of Great 
Britain will not last forever, and there are certainly sufficient data to ap- 
prise us that the foundations of British commercial ascendency will be 
seriously undermined in some most important localities, at a period not in- 
calculably distant. In the United States the supply may seem inexhaust- 
ible ; but the extraordinary demand and consumption which will ensue 
ere long will cause a reduction of the product of American coal-fields, the 
rapidity of which can not now be imagined. 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 147 

known point in the coming future, tlie final end of tlic 
j)rescnt constitution of things is gained, and the catas- 
trophe which is to change the present into a liigher 
material and spiritual economy will surely ensue. ^' We, 
therefore^ according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 



GOD AS REVEALED BY THE PERFECT MORAL FUTURE WHICH 
IS YET TO BE. 

Having noticed the indications seen in the nature of 
man, which point to moral progress in the future, we 
close with a brief reference to a cognate subject — indi- 
cations of the being and attributes of God^ seen in the 
human mind. 

In the nature of man we reach the apex of a column, 
from which the being and moral excellence of the 
Creator are distinctly perceptible. It is not necessary 
to re-write in this place what has already been said so 
ably by the great masters in natural theology. It has 
been made plain that the moral nature of man fur- 
nishes the most clear and satisfactory evidence of the 

* 2 Peter, iii. 13. See also Chalmer's sermon on the New Heavens and 
the New Earth. "We argue for the import of this phrase, whether the 
future perfect be attained on the presont globe or elsewhere. 

The Scriptures teach that the soul will survive, and the earth will sur- 
vive, but that the body of both will be changed or new-created. 



148 TEANSITION FROM THE 

moral cliaracter of God. Man in his present state, con- 
sidered in his capabilities ratlier than Ms character^ 
vindicates the moral character of the Creator, both in 
the past and present. Before man was created, the 
phenomena of nature furnished scarcely any evidence 
of the moral attributes of the Divine Being. But in 
the capabilities of man^s nature when properly cul- 
tured, and in the perfection to which the moral crea- 
tion is tending, we may see the Creator clothed in the 
glory of his moral attributes : — The su]3remacy of 
conscience, the fact that the highest good of man is 
found in love to G-od as supreme, and to man as a 
brother ; the fact that spiritual peace and blessing are 
connected with benevolent exercises, while unrest and 
evil are the concomitants of malevolence ; the fact that 
right loving produces as a sequent right living ; and 
that these, being declared by revelation, are now 
known by experience to be the conditions of man's 
chief good ; the great fact that man's greatest good as 
a being arises from moral goodness in exercise — assure 
us, beyond a doubt, that the Maker possesses in per- 
fection the moral goodness in which man, as a creature, 
can alone find his chief end. 

The mind of the designer certainly includes the idea 
of the whole design, from the beginning to the end. 
There is in every plan originated by Intelligence a con- 



CORPOREAL TO THE SPIRITUAL. 149 

nection between all the parts and the final end of the 
whole. The process of creation is merely the carrying 
out in time the divine idea existing from the begin- 
ning ; hence the moral nature of man^ in its perfection, 
was from the beginning in the Divine Mind. 

We have seen that the principles of progress, verified 
by all the past, and the moral character of God, as 
that character is exhibited, especially in his last and 
highest creature upon earth, affirm the perfection of 
humanity in the time to come. We may assume, then, 
that end as accomplished in the resurrection, and 
predicate a perfect man as the creation of God ; then 
looking at the perfect being which will crown, as a 
final result, the work of creation, we learn glorious 
things concerning the great Author : — humanity is joer- 
fected ; man is a " living soul'^ united with a perfect 
body, which is adapted to actualize all the volitions of 
a perfect mind. The reason perceives the true rela- 
tions of things. Conscience is enthroned. The affec- 
tions are pure and influence the will. The Highest 
and Best Being is loved supremely, and finite beings 
impartially. The physical conditions of the earth har- 
monize with the perfect in its inhabitants. The law of 
progress is fulfilled — God's attributes are vindicated — 
the moral finite is perfect on the perfect earth, and the 
moral infinite is perfect over all. 



150 TRANSITION^ ETC. 

In sucL. a creation^ which the law of progress, the 
character of man^ and the character of God^ assure ns 
is to be^ the attributes of the Infinite One will be re- 
flected as from a mirror. The mind of the perfect man 
will be conscious of the Divine impression upon the 
disc of his soul. Perfected nature will proclaim by a 
voice^ sounding from the beginning on to the final end 
— Gob EXISTS ; supreme^ and wise^ and good ! 



BOOK TWO. 

OF MAN AND HIS EESPONSIBIIITIES, 



CONSIDEUED IN CONNECTION WITH 



DIYINE LAW AND DIVINE EEVELATION. 



LAW AND LOYE ARE ONE IJST GOD. 

THE AUTHOK. 



I 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is scarcely jDossible for men to separate the out- 
ward exhibition of Christianity which they see about 
them from New Testament Christianity, as it is re- 
vealed in the life and teachings of the Christ and his 
apostles. It is a first and natural bias of the mind to 
conclude that the prevalent conduct and character of 
professors of religion give a correct impression of the 
spirit and practice required by the Gospel. 

When we remember, too, that some of our own 
dearest friends, in whom we have the utmost confi- 
dence, and with them many of the best men of our 
times, are enrolled as disciples of Christ, in some Chris- 
tian denomination, our impulse to take the Churches 
of our times — especially those Churches in which we 
have most confidence — as the exponents of true Chris- 
tian practice, becomes strong and decisive. Many in- 
quirers for truth — especially skeptical inquirers — -often 
forget what they should always remember, that the 
best Christians are often conscious of falling below the 
spirit and self-denying life required by the Redeemer, 
and that the mass of the professing world is as dar]^:- 
ness compared with the Gospel light. 

Now, because of the conviction before mentioned, 

>7* 



154 INTRODUCTION. 

when evidence has been adduced which leads a man to 
inquire seriously concerning the Divine authority of the 
Christian religion, he naturally turns to the Churches, 
and seeks in them an illustration of the principles and 
practice which the Gospel requires, and his decision 
concerning the truth of Christianity is often influenced 
decisively by the imperfect lives of Christian profess- 
ors. These he takes as an exponent of the Christian 
system, instead cf that active benevolence and exalted 
purity which would be the true product of i3erfect con- 
formity to the example of Christ. 

It will be readily perceived, therefore, that just so 
far as the principles and practice of the Churches are 
not conformed to the teachings of Jhe Gospel, the man 
who takes these as an illustration of what the Gospel 
is, will have his convictions of the nature of true relig- 
ion perplexed and perverted. This would be especially 
true in minds not conversant with the Holy Scriptures. 
Hence, in Papal countries, a corrupt Church repels the 
reason by claiming to be the representative of Divine 
Truth ; and thus infidelity becomes prevalent, and 
skepticism is in one sense true to reason, while it rejects 
as falsehood the religion of the State. And hence in 
all countries, Protestant or Papal, those claiming to be 
disciples of Christ, whether they be teachers or laymen, 
who ^^ come to be ministered unto and not to minister/^ 
exert an evil influence upon inquiring minds. 

Is it too much to say, that while we are sure that the 
best men in all ages have been made so by faith in 
Christ, and while the truly good men of our own age 
are undoubtedly found among professing Christians; 



INTRODUCTION. 155 

yet, if an angel who understood tlic New Testament 
v/cre to look upon tlie earth for the first time, lie would 
scarcely conceive that many of the Church forms, and 
Church offenses against the plain Scriptures, wliicli are 
prevalent in our own times, could be predicated upon 
the simple, self-denying doctrines and practice incul- 
cated in the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth ? 

We shall reach in the next paragraph an aspect of 
the subject which will relieve our minds from any pain- 
ful sensations which these discriminations may have 
produced. We make them because we are anxious that 
the reader of this volume should look at the ^^ excel- 
lency of the glory of God, as it is revealed in the face 
of Jesus Christ,"' and not have his conceptions of truth 
and duty perverted by the imperfect exhibitions of 
Christian character which he sees about him. Our 
book does not aim to establish the fact that the God 
revealed in any particular church creed is perfect, nor 
that the Christianity exhibited by the worldly churches 
of our times is divine. We affirm, and shall prove, that 
the God revealed in Christ is if>erfect^ and that the Chris- 
tianitTj of the New Testament is divine. 

When rightly considered, the imperfections of human 
practice under the Gospel would lead inquiring men to 
a very difierent conclusion from that at which they 
usually arrive. It is one of the best evidences of the 
purity and power of our holy religion, that its teachings 
are still so far in advance of the conceptions and prac- 
tice of the world, and even of the greater number of its 
professed friends. The Gospel came to the earth in an 
age of intellectual light, but of great moral deteriora- 



156 INTBODUCTION. 

tion ; and the insj^ired apostles were not all in their 
graves before its pure doctrines were perverted by the 
sophisms, and its practice corrupted by the bad prin- 
ciples of some of those who professed to receive and 
teach its heavenly truths. The fact that men fell 
below the pure conceptions of the Gospel the moment 
that inspiration ceased, is certainly a striking evidence 
of its heaven-born purity. And the additional fact 
that the vital power of the Gospel in the souls of men 
has increased from the time that the Bible was unvailed 
during the Eeformation, up to our own times, and that 
the pure Scriptures still continue to dispel the darkness 
which began to gather upon them at the death of the 
apostles, is a testimony which produces assurance that 
there is inherent divinity in the Christian Revelation, 
and that, empowered by the Divine presence and 
agency, it will, in the end, work out the great process 
which will '^ bring glory to God in the highest, on earth, 
peace, and good will to men.^' 

Leaving, then, the imperfect example of professing 
Christians, learned questions about the Jewish Hag- 
iographa, and other things which do not relate to 
the sanctifying central truths of the Gospel, to be dis- 
cussed by others, and remembering that inane or dog- 
matic disquisitions about the Gospel is not the Gospel, 
let the reader turn away his mind in charity from what 
he may deem unreasonable, imscriptural, or selfish in 
the opinions or practice of the churches, and examine 
with me the question of the Divine authority of the 
Gospel upon its own merits and adaptations. 



CHAPTER I. 

EXPOSITION OF THE NECESSITY AND BULE OF LAW. 

GrOD governs all things by laws appropriate to their 
respective natures. The laws which govern physical 
phenomena are written in treatises on the different 
branches of natural philosophy. These have been re- 
ferred to in the j)receding book. Mental and ethical 
philosophy relate to the laws of man's intellectual and 
moral constitution ; and although definitions are not 
settled in this department of study, yet valuable at- 
tainments have been made in the knowledge of the 
laws which govern in the mental and moral depart- 
ments of the creation. If there be any province of 
nature concerning which we know nothing of the laws 
which relate to its adjusted parts and processes, yet we 
deduce enough by analogy to know that there are laws 
governing in the unexplored regions of creation, as cer- 
tainly as in those departments which we have investi- 
gated. The order of the universe is maintained, the 
relations of its different parts adjusted, and the exist- 
ence of the whole, and of •each part in particular, 



158 EXPOSITION OF THE 

preserved by law. Laio is a necessity of things ; ne- 
cessary in order to process^ harmony^ and staLility, in 
any system. The laws of nature^ as a code^ are so ad- 
justed with each other that no one could be changed 
without affecting the entire system. There are links 
of law which bind the parts and processes of the uni- 
verse from an atom to a system^ from the lowest mani- 
festation of life to the mightiest created intellect. 
The laws of the Creator are universal and perfect. 
There is no progression in a law. Other things being 
the same and equal^ the measure and rule of law are 
the same forever. Man may not calculate with per- 
fect accuracy the moment when the shadow will strike 
the disc of an eclipsed orb ; but the error lies not in 
the operation of the law governing the relative bodies^ 
but in some imperfection in the calculation^ or in some 
related influence not taken into the account. That 
law is cognate with organization^ and the basis of order 
in the universe^ will be admitted by all who read these 
pages. Law^ then^ is a necessity of things — necessary 
to the identity and existence of the several parts of the 
creation^ and to the harmony of the universe as a 
whole. 

PENALTY A NECESSITY OF LAW. 

Law is a necessity of things^ and penalty is a neces- 
sity of lata. This second aflirmation, although equally 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 159 

true may not be assented to so readily as the preceding 
one. Sometimes there is not a clear apprehension of 
the difference between the necessity of penalty as a 
final issue^ and the necessity of penalty immediately 
executed upon the transgressor. It is not affirmed that 
penalty is always immediate upon the transgression of 
law^ nor that^ where transgression has occurred, the 
penalty may not be counteracted. What we do say is, 
that every law has its penalty. Natural penalty, or 
rather the penalty natural to laiUj is progressive de- 
rangement tending to ultimate destruction. If disor- 
der be not immediately destructive, then, during the 
deranged action which follows departure from law, the 
subject by interposition, as we shall see, may be re- 
covered to obedience ; but if not recovered, the de- 
struction of the subject, whatever it may be, is neces- 
sary ^ and therefore certain. 

REASONS WHY PENALTY IS A NECESSFfY OF LAW. 

We wish to reiterate and illustrate this form of ex- 
pression until the two cognate truths become lucid and 
settled convictions. We can perceive enough of the 
nature and relations of things to know that penalty lies 
not wholly, nor perhaps mostly, against the subject 
that transgresses the law. The necessity of penalty is 



160 EXPOSITION OF THE 

connected with the general good. God has created 
thmgs^ as we have noticed^ in relationship to each 
other^ and the restoration or destruction of a trans- 
gressing subject is necessary to the harmony and safety 
of the whole. 

In the realms both of matter and mind there are 
facts that elucidate this subject : the physical will illus- 
trate the moral.*'**' If a planet should ^^ shoot madly 
from its sphere/' its destruction would be necessary, 
not so much on its own account (if we may so speak), 
as on account of its deranging influence upon other 
bodies. When it lost its place and balance among the 
spheres, it passed into a condition of disorder which 
would necessarily terminate in its destruction. This, 
however, would not be the greatest evil. In its disor- 
der it would necessarily encroach upon the orbits of 

* '' The Author of the realm of spirits is Hkewise the Author of the 
realm of nature : both kingdoms develop themselves by the same laws. 
Wherefore those comparisons, which the Redeemer derives from the 
realm of nature, are not mere comparisons serving to throw light upon the 
topic in hand ; they are inward [profound] analogies, and nature is a wit- 
ness for the realm of spirits. This truth floats dimly in the allegorizing 
Cabalists, and also is prevalent in Swedenborg, who did not lack in the 
apprehension of the principle, but only in the application of the principle. 
Their principle was — '^):iD ^^i N5>nNi ^"i n^.p!! Np^J'ln i. e., ' every thing 
that is in the kingdom of the earth, is found also in the kingdom of 
heaven.' [Sohar ad Gen., f 91, c. 362]. Were it not so, those compari- 
sons would not have the power of conviction which they do exercise over 
every uupervcrted mind." — Tide Professor Tholuck of Halle on the Vine 
EmUem in John xv. rendered by Kaufmmi. 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 101 

other bodies^ derange the whole system to which it be- 
longed^ and^ if not destroyed, it would involve the 
whole in eventual ruin. When it left its prescribed 
place, then, in view of the safety of other parts of the 
system, its destruction would become necessary. The 
very laws which preserved it in its place would cause 
its destruction out of its place ; and in order to save it, 
Grod would have to destroy all the physical laws of the 
system (and then it would not be saved), or adopt some 
expedient to bring it back and balance the injury 
which its aberration had occasioned to the members of 
the solar family. Destruction is a necessity when any 
member of a system persistently violates the laws of 
the system. 

So an animal which violates its instincts departs not 
only from the laws of adaptation which secure its own 
happiness, but, as God, has filled all departments of 
nature with body or life appropriate to the several con- 
ditions, when an animal leaves the sphere which the 
law of its instincts prescribes, it necessarily impinges 
upon the province of other things, and the good of the 
whole requires its destruction, and the nature of things 
secures the infliction of the penalty. 

We say, the good of the whole requires its destruction. 
If the ants were to leave the earth, forget their in- 
stincts, and live upon the pollen and vital germs of the 



162 EXPOSITION OF THE 

flowers, the bees would die, and fruit would cease to 
exist throughout the world. The ants, then, must 
either be destroyed, or bees and fruits, and every thing 
which lives upon fruits, must suffer. 

We said, the nature of things secures the infliction of 
the "penalty. The nature of the circumstances is such 
that the ant must provide food and shelter for the win- 
ter, but of the germs of flowers she could not make a 
winter^s store ; the ant, therefore, which had left its 
own province, as well as the bee which had not, would 
live a miserable life for a brief season, and then die of 
chill and starvation. Thus Grod's laws are self-exe- 
cuted. The nature of every thing is adapted to cer- 
tain conditions ; but the same laws which preserve the 
life of any thing in its own j)lace, will destroy that life 
if it passes its prescribed limits. 

ANOTHER REASON WHY PENALTY IS A NECESSTY OF LAW. 

Let us look further at the last thoughts in the pre- 
ceding section. Penalty is not only a necessity of law, 
because without order organization would cease ; but 
it is a necessity of law in the same sense that cold is 
the absence of heat. Obedience to law is the condition 
upon which the safety and life of things depend. The 
constitution of each being is adapted to the conditions 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 1G3 

in which it was created to live. In its appropriate con- 
ditions there are provisions for its wants and sources of 
happiness for its enjoyment. So far as tliere is design 
in kiw, then^ it indicates benevolence^ which hinds Ly 
law every thing in the condition where its hajopiness is 
procured and where its existence aids in producing the 
haj)piness of other things. Law and love are one in 
God. A beaver's instincts and conformations are 
adapted to the water ; but if it should stray into the 
desert^ where ih6 ostrich is at home^ it would meet 
death by protracted suffering or by the violence of ^_ 
other animals. The bee^ by obeying the laws of its 
life^ not only secures appropriate stores for itself^ but, 
by distributing the pollen of flowers, it aids in the 
germination of fruits and gives variety to the flora of 
the world. Thus, in obedience to the specific laws of 
each species, each individual not only finds happiness 
and life, but aids in the happiness and life of the 
whole. To depart from law, therefore, as necessarily 
secures suffering and final death, as to depart from 
good secures evil. 

TO THE DISOBEDIENT PARDON IS IMPOSSIBLE. 

To the disobedient the laws of the universe are inex- 
orable. The law permits no transgression, and pro- 



164 EXPOSITION OF THE 

vicles for no pardon. In so far as law would allow of 
transgression^ it would annul itself and produce evil. 
A single transgression places the trespassers in the 
" road to ruin ;'' and pardon in itself can not^ from the 
nature of the case^ prevent or remit the penalty. Hap- 
piness and life being the result of obedience^ as we 
have seen^ pardon without a return of the transgressor 
to the sphere of obedience would be a form without 
effect. Obedience is the condition of safety and life ; 
therefore^ pardon without restoration of the trans- 
gressor to obedience is absurd and impossible in a sys- 
tem governed by law. 

IGNORANCE DOES NOT AVERT THE PENALTY OF NATURAL LAW. 

Law is inexorable in another sense than the one ex- 
hibited above. In all cases below moral law the pen- 
alty attaches to the transgressor^ without reference to 
the manner or cause of the violation. Whether the 
transgressor be ignorant or enlightened — ^whether the 
act be done wilfully or of necessity — no matter in what 
way the subject passes from under law^ it passes to 
penalty. Many animals are born suffering, and their 
life is one protracted pain until the coming on of the 
death-agony. In all such cases there is some struct- 
ural derangement, some organic injury, which obstructs 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 1G5 

or destroys the usual operations of some function of 
the body. 

The family wlio^ either from ignorance or necessity, 
transgresses the laws of health, will suffer the penalty 
as certainly as though they had willingly indulged in 
wrong habits. If they eat injurious food, or breathe a 
tainted atmosphere, they will suffer, no matter in what 
circumstances the evil occurred. Innocent descendants, 
for many generations, often suffer evils induced by the 
transgressions of their parents. Law is more sacred 
than life ; it must be preserved, notwithstanding many 
individuals, innocent of all wrong in the case, and often 
without an act of their own, suffer intensely, even unto 
death. Without the law no such individuals could 
exist, and the suffering of many individuals is less than 
the abrogation of the law, which would procure the 
destruction of the whole. And furthermore, the abro- 
gation, suspension, or modification of a law, is impos- 
sible, because each law is related to all other laws, and 
the power which affected a single law would affect the 
whole constitution of things connected with it. 

THE FIRST VIOLATION PRODUCES A TENDENCY TO DESTRUCTION 
IN WHATEVER BREAKS ESTABLISHED LAW. 

When the first transgression has occurred, there is 
no strength or influence in the aberrating subject to 



166 EXPOSITION OF THE 

restore itself. If a planet were to depart from its orLit, 
the first departure would give it a tendency to depart 
forever. As a weight upon an inclined plane^ the first 
movement creates a momentum^ which will increase 
until the movement is stopped by an opposing force. 
If one cog becomes broken in a single wheel^ every 
revolution jars the whole machinery^ and widens the 
fracture, until the injury is repaired or until it becomes 
irreparable. One departure from rectitude, under all 
laws, makes another more easy, and every departure 
increases the difficulty of a restoration to order. The 
very laws, as we have noticed, which hold a subject to 
happy obedience, operate for destruction where there 
has been transgression. The earth is now balanced in 
our system, and moves in obedience to centrifugal and 
centripetal forces ; but if it were to move from its orbit 
the balance would be broken, and the disproportionate 
or illegal action of the two forces would work its de- 
struction. This would be certain unless a sympathy 
latent in the whole system, or a power above the sys- 
tem, were to accomplish its restoration. 

RESTORATION OF THE DISORDERED SUBJECT POSSIBLE WITmN 
A CERTAIN LIMIT. 

While it is true that the action of a subject out of 
obedience to law tends to increase derangement^ and 






NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 1G7 

while there is no remedy for the derangement in the 
aberrating subject itself, it is likewise true that there 
is a rejmrative or recuperative energy in every system 
as a whole, which, if called into activity, may effect re- 
covery. The physical conformation of an animal will, 
to a certain extent, and within certain limits, adapt 
itself to circumstances of location and climate. If one 
part of the body be injured, there is a vis vitce in the 
whole, l^y which sound parts contribute to the recovery 
of parts diseased or injured.'"' Individuals may indulge 
in vices, and as a consequence injure the health of the 
system ; but if there be a cessation of the evil habit 
before the constitution is injured there may be re- 
covery ; but this point being passed, entire exemption 
from the effects of the transgression becomes impos- 
sible. A diseased or deranged member never cures 
itself without compensation from other members. 
'^ When one member sufiers, all suffer with it ;" but 
if there be recuperative energy remaining in the sys- 
tem, there is a draft upon the whole to aid in the 
recovery of the part diseased. So in the physical uni- 
verse, aberrations in one part are met by compensations 
from others, and thus the balance of the whole is pre- 
served. These compensations seem to flow from what 

* See " God in Disease, or the Manifestation of Design in Morbid Phe- 
nomena," by James D. Duncan, M.D., c. 8-10. 



168 EXPOSITION OF THE 

may be called a sympathetic principle^ pervading the 
whole of any system^ or of any distinct organization, 
and perhaps pervading the whole universe ; and, as has 
been stated, the restorative power only extends to a 
certain limit, beyond which the injury of the aberrat- 
ing subject is irremediable. This sympathy pervading 
the whole is often strikingly exhibited in species of 
animated nature. If one animal is attacked, the cry 
of distress will generally arouse individuals of i^s proper 
species, and bring them to the rescue.'*^ It is the con- 
servative power of the whole species exerted to preserve 
the parts. This conservative or recuperative sympathy 
is an impartation of ^^ saving health'' from the Creator, 
pervading all systems, uniting the individuals of 
species, and to some extent affecting all objects of the 
creation. 

THE RESTORATION OF THOSE INJURED BY THE TRANSGRESSOR IS 
ANOTHER NECESSARY CONDITION IN ORDER TO THE SAFETY 
AND HAPPINESS OF A SYSTEM WHERE VIOLATION OF LAW HAS 
OCCURRED. 

When any derangement of the order established by 
law takes place, either in the animate or inanimate 
creation, it is not only necessary that the subject vio- 
lating the laws appropriate to its nature should be re- 

* A hybrid, in this and all other respects, is out of sympathy with all 
species of things. 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 169 

covered^ but it is necesscary that tlic injuries which its 
departures from law have produced to otlicr things 
should he repaired. 

We refer again to a system where the effect of law 
on the largest scale^ and in its most minute influence, 
can be best appreciated. If one of the solar family 
were to leave its path, then, in order to the safety of 
the system, it would not only be necessary that it 
should be recovered, but likewise that all evil done by 
its aberration should, be repaired. If it were restored, 
while the derangement which it had caused was per- 
mitted to continue, this unrepaired derangement would 
increase until it had produced the destruction of the 
whole system. The law is not made for one, but for 
many ; and the laws that pertain to one class are 
linked into those which govern another, and when one 
link is broken the whole system to which it pertains is 
deranged. So, as we have noticed, if any species of 
animals were to depart from its prescribed place, it 
would remove other species, and these again would im- 
pinge upon others, and thus derangement would go on 
carrying its evil influence through whole classes of ani- 
mated life. 

When the individuals of any species are by instinct 

destructive to others, there are certain armatures and 

instruments, aggressive and defensive, in creatures, 

8 



170 EXPOSITION OF THE 

which are wisely balanced by the Creator^ for the pres- 
ervation of individuals^ and for destroying or preserving 
life^ so that the whole series of species maintain a pro- 
portionate adjustment to each other. But when an 
evil which violates the laics of instinct originates in any 
particular creature of a species^ as in the case of a 
rabid dog, extermination must take place, until every 
living thing is extirpated which was affected by the 
poison. Diseases produced by certain vices tend to 
disseminate themselves, and the recovery of one set of 
transgressors is of no avail unless the infection be ex- 
tirpated which exists in the system of others. The 
transgressor must be recovered, and those affected by 
him restored, before the poison ceases to circulate in 
the blood of the race. Two things, then, are necessary 
in order to the removal of physical or organic derange- 
ment, in order to rectification, in all cases where there 
has been violation of law : first, the recovery of the 
transgressor to obedience ; and second, the removal of 
the evil in others which the transgressor had occa- 
sioned. *. . 

OF MAN AS A SUBJECT OF LAW. 

in the light of the preceding principles we come to 
consider the laws which attach to man, and to make 
some preliminary distinctions before noticing more 



NECESSITY AND HULE OF LAW. 171 

particularly the moral law and its relations to man as a 
subject of moral government. There are at least two 
preliminary discriminations which it is important we 
should make. Many persons of good intentions, claim- 
ing to be teachers of a true and useful philosophy, 
have, as we think, erred themselves, and have misled 
others, by not making the discriminations which fol- 
low. 

TWO CLASSES OF LAWS AND PENALTIES ATTACH TO MAN. 

Man is a bifold being, he has a physical and a spirit- 
ual nature. There are, therefore, two classes of laws 
which attach themselves to him ; the one to his or- 
ganic, the other to his moral being. The laws which 
relate to man's animal organism are interwoven with 
our mortal constitution, and cease to affect us at the 
dissolution of the body. The laws which relate to our 
life and happiness, as moral beings, are connate with 
the existence of the soul, and so long as the soul lives 
it micst live by them and wider them. The laws which 
govern man — one class as a material, the other as a 
spiritual being — are as distinct from each other as the 
soul and the body. We should keep this distinction in 
mind, because the penalties for transgressing the or- 
ganic laws, which pertain to the animal economy, are 



A 



172 EXPOSITION OF THE 

often so mingled with the penalties of moral trans- 
gression^ that true views of the subject are obscured.-^ 

PAIN IS NOT ALWAYS ULTIxMATE PENALTY. 

If pain be considered penalty, which it may be in 
one sense, yet pain is not all the penalty of transgress- 
ing either organic or moral law. It is part of the pen- 
alty only, as progress is part of the result — as derange- 
ment is linked with disaster. Pain indicates that there 
is disease or derangement in the system. If the disor- 
der be removed by compensation from other parts of 
the system, or by appliances from without, the pain 
ceases with the removal of the derangement by which 
it was occasioned. The pain was neither the disease 
nor the cure. A cancer is a different thing from the 
pain which it produces. Often the pain abates al- 
though there be no remedy for the evil. " Dying ^ iliou 
slialt die^'' is the penalty of transgressing the laws both 
of our organic and moral nature. That is, derange- 
ment, when begun, tends to and will ultimate in death. 
Such, too, as we shall see, is the penalty of the moral 
law. The nature and design of all laws are the same. 
The necessity of penalty and the nature of penalty are 
the same in all cases. The best expression for penalty 

* As in the works of Fowler, which contain some practical truth, with 
many erroneous views and conceited assumptions. 



NECESSITY AND RULE OF LAW. 173 

which can be formed is that found in the earliest He- 
brew Scriptures, and attached to the first disobedience 
— ^' Dying, thou shalt die/' '**• 

Let us, then, not mistake pain of body or pain of 
conscience for the derangement itself, which causes the 
pain, or for the final penalties of organic or moral law. 
Pain often abates in the body as the strength of the 
constitution diminishes to death. Pain may subserve a 
benevolent design ; it is admonitory of existing disor- 
der, or of penalty in progress. But the fact is beyond 
dispute that death ensues as the ultionate penalty^ 
whether with or without pain, unless the disorder be 
removed. 

* Gen. ii. I'T, "Thou shalt surely die." [Heb. Dying ^ tliou shalt die.'] 
From the period of transgression a dying life is ordained ; a moral de^ 
rangement, which, without rescue, will ensue in a hopeless death. 



CHAPTER II. 

CONCERNING THE^ MORAL LAW 

It has been stated that the nature and necessity of 
law and penalty are the same in all cases. God is one^ 
and all law exists eternally in and by the Uncreated 
Mind. We shall now consider the Moral Law alone, 
and notice that the principles of the foregoing expo- 
sition are as applicable to the Moral Law as to any 
other law by which God governs his universe. 

NECESSITY, INVIOLABILITY, AND SANCTION OF MORAL LAW. 

If God be a moral being and a moral governor^ there 
must be a moral law. We can not suppose a moral 
governor without a moral law ; in reason^ the one im- 
plies the other. 

As the Supreme Being is the moral governor of the 
universe^ the moral law can be nothing else than an 
expression of his will ;. if, therefore, the character of 



CONCEENING THE MORAL LAW. 175 

the Divine Being be perfectly holy and immutable^ the 
moral law must be so. 

Like other laws, the moral law is inexorable — it can 
not license or pardon transgression. To snpj)Ose that 
the law could permit sin, would be to say either that 
God is unholy, or that he permitted what is contrary 
to his own will, which is absurd. 

Besides, if God is benevolent, he would not license sin, 
because, as we have seen, the transgression involves evil 
to the transgressor. God would not, therefore, as a be- 
nevolent being, permit sin, except as a part of a system 
where progress and compensations were introduced, that 
would in the end remove the evil or bring good out 
of it. 

The characteristic of inviolability in the law is ad- 
justed to the moral convictions of the beings who are 
subject to it. No one can, vv^ithout doing violence to 
his reason and conscience, affirm that God ought to 
make a law that would license a single sin. The holy 
inviolability of the law finds a sanction in the moral 
constitution of every intelligent subject of God's gov- 
ernment. No sane man will say, even in his own case, 
tliat God ought to make a law that would permit him 
to commit a single transgression. 

Now, if God can not, from the necessities of his 
nature, make a law that will permit sin ; if he ought 



176 CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 

not to make such a law^ and if he has so constituted 
man that^ as a moral being, he can not approve of such 
a law — then^ the force of all these considerations com- 
bined, puts the truth beyond question, that the moral 
law of God, like all other laws, can not permit a single 
transgression. And, while it allows of no sin, it makes 
no provision for pardon. The promise of life is on the 
one only condition of perfect and perpetual obedience. 
No law can proclaim pardon for the transgression of its 
own re{][uirements without annulling itself. It may- 
provide, in some cases, for compensation — as for an 
injury inflicted a compensation may be rendered to the 
person injured ; but to provide a pardon for the trans- 
gression of its own precept is not in the nature of law. 
Besides, as in other laws, if pardon were offered to a 
sinner without obedience, the proposition would be pre- 
posterous, and the promise a nullity, because God has 
constituted the soul, as he has all things else, that life 
is found only in obedience. To pardon a sinner, there- 
fore, while he continues a sinner, is morally impossible, 
and were it possible, in any sense, under the Divine 
government, it would be without benefit to man. 



I 



CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 177 



MORAL TRANSGRESSION TENDS TO PENAL DESTRUCTION. 

As in other instances^ the first departure from obedi- 
ence in man creates a tendency to continued departing. 
Any derangement^ either in the physical or moral sys- 
tem is self-aggravating and self-perpetuating^ without 
aid from other parts. A single act of sin is a depart- 
ure from rectitude, and the departure strengthens the 
depraved tendency. Sin enfeebles man's moral nature. 
The conservative or recuperative power of his moral 
constitution grows less by every act of transgression. 
Conscience becomes less potential, and the will more 
inclined to err ; in other words, the strength of moral 
emotion is abated, and evil inclination strengthened by 
every act of transgression. As the exercise of any 
bodily member increases its strength, so the exercise of 
our moral faculties, whether in a good or bad direction, 
increases the inclination of the will to good or evil. 
Thus sin begets sin. The power of sin over the soul 
increases by sinning. This is human experience, and it 
agrees with human observation in relation to the effect 
of transgression in all other cases. One sin puts the 
soul in the " road to ruin'' as certainly as the first 
movement of a weight down an inclined plane tends to 

accelerate momentum and to prevent return. 

8* 



178 CONCERNING THE MOEAL LAW. 



NECESSITY OF THE DEATH-PENALTY IN MORAL LAW. 

The death-penalty exists in moral law by the same 
necessity that it does in physical and organic laws. It 
may not be in view of the evil^ as it affects the trans- 
gressor only that the penalty is pronounced : ^Hhe soul 
that sinneth^ it shall die.'' It may be^ certainly is^ in 
view likewise of the evil^ as it affects the good of others^ 
that the irreclaimable transgressor is doomed to moral 
death. 

The moral law is universal in its application to moral 
beings. It binds all angels and all men to love God 
supremely, and their neighbor as themselves. Sin not 
only injures the moral character of the transgressor, 
but evil influence and evil example produce evil in 
other subjects of the same moral government. If sin 
had no evil effect upon beings of a sphere higher than 
that of man, still it has the twofold effect of injuring 
the transgressor and of imparting injury to others of 
his own class in the moral world. But analogy teaches 
that all beings bound by the same laws are, or may be, 
affected by each other's transgressions ; and likewise, 
that classes related in the same economy affect each 
other as individuals ; and this relationship must con- 
tinue so long as law exists, and so long as spirits con- 



CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 179 

tinue free^ whether in this world or the next. The 
death-penalty, then, in moral law, is necessary, for the 
same reasons that exist in all other cases. Unless there 
can be restoration to obedience, and compensation for 
the evil done, the good of the whole demands the 
destruction of the transgressor. 



ADDITIONAL REASON FOR THE DEATH-PENALTY IN MORAL LAW. 

In addition to the reasons which have been men- 
tioned, reasons connected with law in all departments 
of the universe, that the death-penalty is necessary in 
order to the good of the whole system, there are moral 
considerations J which add their weight in cases where 
the moral laio is transgressed. Every one can see that 
an agent, knowing good and evil, is not only bound by 
moral obligations to benefit others, but when he does a 
moral act which he knows will produce injury to other 
beings, he is guilty for that moral injury as well as for 
the injury done to himself. In all unreasoning things 
there can be only a legal connection between trans- 
gression and its consequences. But human transgres- 
sion has this necessary legal connection with its conse- 
quences ; and besides this, a knowledge of the wrong 
adds moral guilt to transgression. The evil done to 
others^ likewise, of which he has knowledge, is often 



180 CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 

numerically and morally greater than that which ac- 
crues to himself^ as the interests of many are greater 
than the interests of one. In moral law^ therefore, 
pardon and compensation to avert the consequences of 
evil done to others is especially necessary. The restora- 
tion must go further than the recovery of the individ- 
ual transgressor, because the evil goes further. A 
sinner who has influenced others to evil is guilty, in 
part at least, for the evil in others as well as for that in 
himself. His own restoration, or return to obedience, 
covers only a portion of the evil growing out of his 
transgression. The currents of rebellion which the 
sinner, before repentance, originated or accelerated in 
other minds, do not cease with his death or repent- 
ance ; they run on in the life-stream of others. A 
transgressor may be — he often is — restored to obedience 
himself, while those whom he influenced to sin continue 
in the ways of disobedience. As one may recover from 
a contagious disease while those die to whom he com- 
municated his disorder, so one may repent from disobe- 
dience while those whom he influenced previously to 
his penitence continue disobedient subjects of the Di- 
vine government ; and unless there be recuperative 
moral energy in the system to which the sinner, with 
his deranged moral nature, belongs, there can be no 
restoration of the offender, and therefore no pardon ; 



CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 181 

and even if he be restored, the guilt which he caused in 
others continues, and restoration or compensation in 
their case is needed before the effects of his sin are re- 
moved or counteracted, and before he can be pardoned 
according to law. 

The death-penalty, then, accrues under the moral as 
it does under organic and physical laws, but with ad- 
ditional moral considerations enforcing its necessity. 
From this death-penalty of moral law, for moral trans- 
gression, there can be no redemption, except by restora- 
tion of the transgressor to obedience, and compensation 
for the evil which his sin has occasioned in the moral 
government of God. 

RECAPITULATION.* 

Of the things which we have written this is the sum. 
Law and penalty are not chimeras, nor incidental and 
mutable relations of things ; they are necessities of the 
creation. Law is higher and holier than life ; it is ne- 
cessary to the existence of life. Penalty is a necessity 
of law ; it is necessary to the existence of law : it is 
necessary to the good of the whole. Where transgres- 
sion exists, pardon, or happiness, or safety is impossi- 

* We recapitulate frequently in this portion of the work, in order that 
the reader may observe the connection of each chapter with conclusions 
ascertained in preceding ones. 



182 CONCERNING THE MORAL LAW. 

ble. Law is inexorable. Ignorance of its provisions 
does not avert the penalty of either physical or organic 
laws^ and only qualifies or graduates the penalty of 
moral law. The first transgression puts penalty in 
progress^ and places the subject in the road to ruin. 
Eestoration to order and obedience is possible within 
certain limits ; but safety is impossible and pardon ab- 
surd^ unless two conditions are complied with^ viz. : — 
the restoration of the transgressor ^ and the restoratio7i 
of those affected hy his influence ; or^ restoration of the 
transgressor^ and compensation lohich ivill counterwork 
and eventually remove the derangement from the sys- 
tem. In cases of derangement, recovery or compensa- 
tion can not be accomplished by the deranged subject, 
but must arise from sources out of or above the de- 
rangement ; but one or the other, restoration or de- 
struction, is necessary and certain. 

In the application of these general princi23les to man, 
there are two classes of laws which apply — one to his 
organism as a corporeal being, the other to his spiritual 
nature. The penalties of organic sins are inflicted 
upon the body, and are, therefore, temporal and legal : 
spiritual penalties are inflicted upon the soul. Unless 
there be restoration, penalty continues while the life of 
the subject lasts. Pain that accompanies derangement 
is not the whole of penalty ; it indicates that derange- 



CONCERNING THE M O 11 A L LAW. 183 

ment exists^ and accompanies it until reytoration or de- 
struction ensue. When recovery is not eftccted, the 
destruction of the subject is the natural and necessary 
penalty of transgression. 

The moral law^ in its application to man as a spirit- 
ual being, possesses the same characteristics as physical 
and organic laws. Its nature is inviolable and inexora- 
ble, and its penalties immutable. There may be par- 
don after obedience is restored, and compensation for 
evils made, which the transgressor himself can not ef- 
fect ; but without these, ^^ dying, thou shalt die,'' is 
decreed by legal, natural, and moral necessity ; die 
spiritually, by the subject's own sin, and in order to se- 
cure the system from the effect of disordered action. 



CHAPTER III. 

MAN UNABLE TO EECOVER HIMSELF FEOM DISOBEDIENCE 
OR REDEEM HIMSELF FROM THE PENALTIES OF SIN. 

In the light of preceding principles^ the legal condi- 
tions of rectification^ or justification^ in the sight of the 
law^ are plain. They are twofold : first^ a restoration 
of the transgressor to obedience to law ; and, second, a 
reparation of all injuries occasioned to himself and to 
others by past disobedience. If the transgressor could 
recover himself to perfect obedience — if he could repair 
the evil done to his own moral nature by sin — if he 
could counteract the evil effect of his past life in other 
mindS; and compensate for the evil which those minds 
did in consequence of his influence upon them ; then, 
being rectified himself by his own power, and having 
rectified the injury which he had occasioned, if God is 
sufficiently merciful to forgive sin, the sinner would be 
admitted again into place and favor in the Divine gov- 
ernment. And still, under these circumstances, if they 
were possible, the pardon of the moral transgressor 



I 



MAN UNABLE TO RECOVER HIMSELF. 185 

would be an act of mcrcy^ because an evil act is wrong 
in itself, and subsequent obedience and reparation, 
while tliey prevent further evil consequences, do not 
atone for the evil per se of the wrong action. But 
God is merciful ; the transgressor, therefore, if he could 
perform these necessary conditions, would be pardoned. 
But to fulfill these conditions necessary to justifica- 
tion and pardon is as much beyond the power of a sin- 
ful being as to create a world. With no aid from 
without himself, man, as a sinner, must fall under the 
death-penalty induced by the violation of law. So far 
as ability to recover himself is concerned, and so far as 
present penalty is connected with present sin, he is 
already dead. 

GROUNDS OF MAn's MORAL INABILITY TO SAVE mMSELF. 

The statements in a preceding section, showing the 
nature of sin to aggravate itself, are mainly applicable 
here. The commission of sin does not abate the dispo- 
sition to transgress, but increases it. Like all other 
derangements, the tendency to sin augments itself by 
its own action. Transgression enfeebles the moral na- 
ture. Conscience becomes less potential, and the incli- 
nation of the will to evil increases with every act of 
transgression. Habit produces facility in any direction 
to which the will may tend ; and all things, as we have 



186 MAN UNABLE TO RECOVER HIMSELF. 

seen, are so constituted that any aben^ation from the 
line of law decreases the power which holds subjects of 
law in their place, and gives strength to the influence 
which draws them from obedience. As a stream pass- 
ing over a rock wears for itself a channel from which it 
can not escape, so the will, moving in obedience to a 
selfish inclination, is alienated from the standard of 
rectitude, and confirms itself, by its natural action, in 
opposition to the Divine Law. Afiectionate obedience 
to Grod, and affectionate effort for human good, is holi- 
ness ; but the transgressor has not only lost his holi- 
ness, but his disposition to be holy. As inclination is 
to a falling body, so disposition is to the mind. Kes- 
toration, therefore, without light and aid from without 
the soul itself, is morally impossible. On the other 
hand, the natural tendency is to depart, not to return. 

MAN CAN NOT COMPENSATE FOR THE INJURY WmCH HIS SINS 
HAVE OCCASIONED IN OTHER MINDS. 

If man were able to renovate his own moral nature 
and restore himself to obedience, his return would not 
make amends for past injuries done to others. A good 
act in the present does not compensate for a bad one in 
the past. It is unreasonable to suppose that a man 
can atone for killing one person by subsequently saving 
the life of another, because good within the compass 



MAN UNABLE TO RECOVER HIMSELF. 187 

of our knowledge and ability is an ever-present dnty ; 
and the performance of duty can purchase no pardon 
for the past nor indulgence for the future. 

And if our return to obedience^ by whatsoever poAvcr 
it may be effected, can not atone for past sin in our- 
selves, much less can our obedience arrest, or atone for, 
the evil which our sin occasioned, and which continues 
to flow on in other minds. No man sins without injur- 
ing others, either by neglect of duty or by wrong ex- 
ample. The wrong bias left upon other minds contin- 
ues, and these minds again influence others to evil. 
Thus every man who has injured others by an example 
of disobedience, leaves an evil influence in the world 
after his own individual evil action has ceased by re- 
pentance or by death. 

The facts and the philosophy included in these con- 
siderations make it plain to us that man being a 
transgressor of the moral law, and liable to the death- 
penalty, can not restore himself to obedience, nor pur- 
chase pardon by compensating for the past evils of his 
life ; hence, if man is ever restored to obedience, and 
pardoned for past sin, it must be by the aid of a Power 
without and above himself. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LEGAL ASPECT AND PRACTICAL VALUE OF THE SACRIFICE 
OF CHRIST, AND ITS ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW OF PRO- 
GRESS AND THE CHARACTER OF GOD. 

We have shown clearly^ as we thiiik^ that in order to 
the pardon of a transgressor^ who is liable as a subject 
of moral government, it is not only necessary that he 
should be recovered from transgression himself, but it 
is necessary that he should be able to repair the injury 
which his sin has occasioned in the moral system of 
which he forms a part. This responsibility grows out 
of the fact that he is an integral part of a moral sys- 
tem that is a whole in itself We have shown further, 
that no man has ability to restore himself to obedience, 
or to rectify the evil which he has caused to other 
moral beings by his sin. Light, love, and influence are 
conditions of repentance, and these must come, as we 
have seen, from without and above the transgressor. 
We inquire now concerning the legal aspect of the sac- 
rifice of Christ, as governmental compensation for sin, 



THE SACRIFICE OF C II HIST. 189 

and a legal condition of the pardon and justification of 
the sinner. 

We assume again^ that perfect obedience to tlie 
moral law is the legal or constitutional ground of 
justification ; that is^ it is the thing which the nature 
of the system^ and of the subject, requires. Every 
man's sin has^ as a matter of fact, injured himself and 
others. He has thus rendered himself liable to the 
penalty of the law. and, within himself, he has no 
power to restore his own soul, or to compensate for his 
evil influence. In looking for legal justification, then, 
we must inquire if there be any being belonging to the 
same system, and amenable to the same government 
with ourselves, whose merit rises above the demands of 
the law. If such a being could be found, then his super- 
legal merit, compensating for human demerit, might 
balance the moral system, and bring the sum of the 
superior and inferior agencies into accordance with the 
claims of the legal principle. (This compensation of 
whole parts suffering loss, in order to restore injured 
members, is, as we have shown, a law in the nature of 
things.) But in order that these agencies should bal- 
ance each other, they must practically counter-ioork 
each other ; that is, the evil consequences of human sin 
must be counteracted, or ivorhed out of the system^ by 
the merit of transcendent holiness, because rectification 



190 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 

of the evil is necessary to justification in laio. If such 
a meritorious and efficient agent as this could be 
found, then the penitent transgressor might, by this 
merit, be restored, and the consequences of his sin 
counteracted or removed. 

Now the moral law could not demand the sacrifice of 
Christ, His perfect obedience fulfilled all its require- 
ments. Sacrifice can not be required of a guiltless 
being to save the guilty from penalty. Law does not 
demand it, but love, as the recuperative power of the 
system, prompts it. Such a self-sacrifice for others is 
super-legal, and if this mercy and merit above law can 
be brought into efficient relation to those below law, 
the two agencies may not only balance each other, hut 
they loill balance each other ^ as a superior moral agency 
will counter- work a weaker one, if the one he efficiently 
united with the other. Thus, the merit of Christ above 
law becomes, by faith (as we shall see), an efficient 
moral power which restores the transgressor to obedi- 
ence, and compensates, as a recuperative energy in the 
moral system of which man is a part. 

This is the algebra *'•*' of redemption — the abstract ex- 



* The foundation principles of the physical universe in its matter and 
motions are mathematical, and it is certain that the moral relations of things 
are alike permanent and proportionate in their nature. Let no one, then, 
suppose that such deductions as this are altogether empty and irrelevant. 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 191 

pression wliicli lies Lack of the personal and practical 
application of the subject. Or^ rather, it is the actual 
value of Christ's merit, applied to the governmental 
requirements which relate to the pardon of sin. 

If law were absolute in itself — if there were no su- 
preme Law-giver above the law, who could maintain its 
sanctions while he interposed to avert the penal con- 
sequences of transgression, it would not be possible, in 
the nature of things, to save any transgressor from the 
penalties of sin. If any transgressor be saved, there- 
fore, it must be by an interposition of the Lavf-giver 
who maintains the law, while mercy restores the 
offender. Poioer above law is oiot justice nor mercy ^ 
hut merit above law is hotli. Divine interposition, 
therefore, to save the lost, would be a substitute of its 
own merit to maintain the law, while mercy inter- 
posed to redeem the sinner. Thus ^' God might be 
just and the Justifier of every one that belie veth.'^ 

If such equations and compensations in law pervade the physical universe, 
why not moral compensation in the moral universe ? 

Says the famous Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury in the eleventh 
century, in his treatise Cur Deus homo — a treatise which the mathema- 
ticians Leibnitz and Hegel have spoken of in the highest terms — speaking 
of the incarnation of the son of God, Anselm says in substance, as ren- 
dered by J. F. Clarke: — "To make satisfaction, this God-man must pay 
something that he does not owe on his own account. As a man, he owes 
perfect obedience for himself; this, then, can not be the satisfaction; but 
being a sinless man, he is not bound to die ; his death, therefore, as the 
death of the God-njan, is the adequate and proper satisfaction." 



192 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 

Here^ then, the question of personal interest presents 
itself : Has the Creator interposed in the moral icorhJ^ 
hy adjustment and neiv creation^ to remove the conse- 
quences of sin, and to elevate men into His own moral 
image ? We inquire for the fact : 

DOES THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST ACTUALLY COUNTERWORK THE 
EVILS OF SIN ? 

That faith in the sacrifice of Christ, as an exhibition 
of the love of God for man, does counteract sinful pro- 
pensities and habits in believers, can not be doubted. 
The reasons and relations of this great truth are clear, 
and have been already suggested. Jesus assumed, as 
the object of faith, that character, and manifested 
those qualities, which he desires shall be produced in 
believers. He personified love and obedience. His life- 
history and love-death ivere the living and dying imper- 
sonation of these graces. He assumed ohjectively ivhaf 
man needs to he subjectively ; and as by faith the attri- 
butes of the object of love become subjective in the 
believer, hence the life and sacrifice of Christ, appro- 
priated by faith, must, from the nature of things, 
transform believers into the Saviour's image, because 
they will receive ^^ grace for grace.'' Thus by the eflS.- 
cacy of faith, in accordance with the laws of mind, 
Christ is formed in the soul '' the hope of glory." Be- 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. llJo 

liolcling tlie light of the gloiy of Gocl in the face 
of Christy believers are transformed '^ into the same 
image^ from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord." 

The view we are considering may be exhibited in a 
logical form as follows : — The history of the Churcli 
and personal Christian experience confirm the fact be- 
yond question, that those who truly believe will be in- 
fluenced in their conscience, will, and affections, by the 
character of Christ. But Christ is the objective type 
of love and obedience to God ; hence those who believe 
in Christ, so far as the objective model becomes sub- 
jective by faith, are restored to love and obedience to 
God. 

Thus it is that faith in Christ subdues the spirit of 
rebellion, and works by love and purifies the heart. 
An efficient relation is established, by which the soul 
is drawn back to the sphere of love and obedience 
from which it had departed. The merit of the process 
is in the objective model, because the subjective effect 
is produced by the objective efficacy; hence as justifi- 
cation in the sight of the law is, by the merit of Christ, 
so sanctification is by faith in that merit. The conclu- 
sion results, therefore, clear as light, and weighty as 
gold — that by the moral merit of Christ alone believers 
are legally justified in the sight of God. 



194 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST 

THE MERIT OF CHRIST COUNTERACTS, AND COMPENSATES FOR, 
THE EFFECT OF SIN UPON OTHERS. 

We come now to the second thing legally or syste- 
matically '^ necessary in order to redemption from the 
penalty of transgression. Does the merit of Christ 
avail to counteract the consequences of sin^ as those 
consequences affect others beside the transgressor ? 
The sinner/ as we have noticed, by his example and in- 
fluence produces evil in other minds : his own restora- 
tion by repentance and faith does not remove the evil 
of which he was the cause. Now, does the work of 
Christ tend to counterwork not only the evils of sin as 
they affect the transgressor, but as they likewise aflect 
other moral agents ? 

Christ's love-sacrifice is a source of actual saving 
power, which brings those who truly believe back to 
affectionate obedience to God. Thus far, then, the 
relations between God and man are adjusted ; but, as 
we have shown, the individual transgressor may be 
restored, while those who were affected by his sin before 
his restoration still go on in transgression ; and the 
restored transgressor has no power to arrest the pro- 

* The acceptation in wliicli I use this word in this place is a needful 
one, and one which I will venture to propose, especially in philosophical 
inquiries. /Systematical — ^that which is necessary as a part of a system — 
necessary in view of the nature of a system as a whole. 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 195 

gress of the evil^ and no merit to compensate for tlie 
injury which he has occasioned^ and which still oper- 
ates in the minds of others. But as the moral govern- 
ment of Grod is one — bound together by one law, 
" Thou slialt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and thy neighbor as thyself ^^ — the rectification of evil 
consequences in the system is necessary, in order to 
legal justification. Does, then, Christ's sacrifice com- 
pensate for — remove the effects of, my sin from the 
minds of others ; and the effects of evil induced by the 
influence of others from my mind ? 

In the case of each individual that is restored to 
obedience, his own sinftil habite, whether produced by 
his own depraved propensities or by the influence of 
others, are broken, and a countervailing influence is 
established, which will in the. end eradicate the evil 
from the heart. The effect of a man's sin in other 
minds does not flow backward, but forward. The 
stream of evil that one man originates in the minds of 
others, runs forward in the life-history of individuals 
toward the end of time. Suppose an individual pursu- 
ing his own inclinations, and affected at the same time 
by my bad example ; he is arrested in his life of diso- 
bedience, and now truly believes in Christ. The char- 
acter and love of Jesus becoming operative by faith 
changes his will— a will wrongly determined by natural 



196 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 

inclination and strengthened in that determination by 
my example. So the power of Christ's merit meets the 
aggregate of evil in penitents^ whether that evil be 
produced by their own evil inclinations^ or by the influ- 
ence of others. It reaches the sources of demerit^ 
and substitutes a countervailing power in the heart. 
If, then^ in the progress of human history^ those evil 
effects which I or others have occasioned^ should be met 
as they flow on in the minds of men, and when met, be 
counteracted by the efficacy of the love-sacrifice, then 
I^ having been before restored, and the effects of my 
sin being now counteracted, my evil would be removed 
from the system of which I form a part, and the law 
of the system would have nothing against me. 

Now history declares, and the Bible frequently and 
explicitly affirms the great truth, that the fountain of 
love opened at Calvary sends forth a stream that aug- 
ments in volume and in power — checked at times, but 
then again bursting the barrier, and flowing onward in 
the course of time. The flowing blood of Jesus, pmi- 
fying from sin, is the rich and affecting symbol of this 
divine efficacy, which is finally to ^' fill the earth,'' to 
'^ take away the sins of the world." The time, there- 
fore, will actually come, when all the effects of my sin 
upon myself, and all the effects of my sin in others^ 
which remain in the current of the world's moral his- 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 197 

tory, will be met and counteracted by the power of love 
exhibited in the sacrifice of Christ. The first Adam, 
as a living being, originated a stream of evil which de- 
scended in the life-flow of the race ; the second Adam, 
as a life-giving Spirit, originated a stream of mercy, 
which meets the dark current and sweetens it into love. 
Thus the flow of the Love-Fountain'**' will in the end 
purify the earth from sin and uncleanness.^' 

COMPENSATION BY THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST AS IT OPERATES 
THROUGH HUMAN AGENCY. 

In addition to this compensatory merit of Christ, 
viewed in its entireness, the sacrifice of Christ causes a 
reaction against sin, which is compensation in an instru- 
mental form for the evil influence which the redeemed 
sinner has exerted upon other minds. When the 
believer is restored to obedience, he exercises thencefor- 
ward a healthful influence over other minds, inclining 
them to penitence and faith. The first effect of the love 
of Christ upon human souls moves them to influence 
others to love and obedience. So the merit of Christ 
not only restores the alienated mind, but it secures, 
through that mind, a salutary influence upon other 
moral agents. The redeemed soul is not only restored^ 
hut it is imbued with an influence ivhich is restorative. 
* "In those days I will open a fountain." 



198 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 

An accumulative process thus goes on ; every restored 
mind adding to the power of the reaction originated by 
Christ against sin. As individuals are restored in Christ, 
the recuperative energy of the race is increased. Thus, 
in accordance with the' laws of the system, and of indi- 
vidual agency, is the Saviour of sinners taking away 
the sins of the world. 

The conclusion then is reached, that there is efficacy 
in the sacrifice of Christ to restore the believer to afiec- 
tionate obedience, and to counteract the effect of his 
sin in the lives of other moral agents. Christ's love- 
sacrifice was remedial and compensatory , '' offered by 
the Eternal Spirit, once for all, for the sins of the 
world.'" Amen. 

Having noticed that the sacrifice of Christ adjusts 
the claims of moral government, and by faith practi- 
cally counterworks the evil of sin, we are prepared in 
succeeding chapters to consider other vital relations of 
Christ's manifestation, as they connect themselves with 
the redemption of man. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MEANS^ MEASURES^ AND METHODS OF RESTORATION 
TO OBEDIENCE TO THE DIVINE LAW-GIVER. 

Assuming now^ that by the compensating and effi^ 
dent righteousness of Christ man can be saved from 
spiritual disorder and death^ the inquiry presents 
itself — How could aid be granted in adaptation to the 
nature and wants of man as a voluntary responsible 
being ? The meritorious sacrifice being offered for his 
redemption in the counsel of Grod/**' what are the neces- 
sary means and methods by which the power of atoning 
mercy may become efficient upon the soul of man as 
an intelligent and responsible being ? 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE CHAnACTER COMMUNICATED BY THE 
ONLY METHOD ADAPTED TO ENLIGHTEN THE MIND^ WHILE AT THE 
SAME TIME IT AWAKENED THE SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF MAN. 

It is a truth not only plainly revealed in the Scrip- 
tures, but affirmed in the reason of our race, that 
man's best condition is attained by assimilation to the 

* " Slain before the foundation of the VYorld." 



200 BESTOEATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

character of God. But in order that we should become 
conformed to the Divine character, that character must 
be clearly and impressively revealed to us. The Divine 
Mind must be known to us, not only as a being of 
power and wisdom, but as a Godhead of conscience, 
affections, and will. The human can not be trans- 
formed into another species. The perfection of our 
proper powers is the final end of our nature. To 
quicken the conscience, purify the suscej)tibilities, and 
guide the will, and thus fully develop the moral powers 
of our species, is to advance man to his ultimate 
attainment. For this end the distinctive revelation 
of the moral attributes of God is necessary, in order 
that each human faculty may assume the lineaments of 
the Divine. 

THE DIVINE BEING HAS AN IMMUTABLE CHARACTER. 

No one doubts but that the Supreme Being (blessed 
be His name !) has a defined and settled moral char- 
acter ; but men have widely different, and often con- 
tradictory views of what that character is. One man 
believes God possesses certain moral attributes, and 
another believes he does not ; to suppose that both are 
right would be absurd, because a thing can not be and 
be at the same time. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 201 

Assuming, then, what will not be questioned, that 
God possesses a distinctive and permanent moral char- 
acter, it follows that every man who has not a true 
conception of that character must be in darkness to 
some extent ; many having very imperfect and inade- 
quate views of God, while the conceptions of others are 
utterly false, and sometimes directly opposite to the 
truth. 



THE IDEA WHICH MEN ENTERTAIN OF GOD IS A SOURCE OF EF- 
FICIENT INFLUENCE IN FORlNONa THEIR CHARACTERS. 

The idea of God, or the conception of the divine 
character by the mind, is all with which man, in his 
present condition, can be conversant. The existence 
and attributes of the Divine Being can have no in- 
fluence upon human minds only so far as the Divine 
character is apprehended, and in proportion to the 
strength of faith which realizes God's being and pres- 
ence as Maker, Saviour, and Judge of men. Knowl- 
edge gives form to the impression, and faith gives 
measure to its power. '^ If, therefore, the idea of God 
in the mind be one thing, and the real character of the 
Divine Being a different thing, the wrong idea not only 

* Knowledge is the property and faith the force which brings God and 
man within related distance of each other. 

9* 



202 EESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

excludes the salutary influence of right impressions, 
but it produces an effect upon human character in- 
jurious in proportion to the fallacy and strength of the 
conception. So far forth as men have false views of 
God before their minds when they worship, they wor- 
ship a false God, and receive, as a consequence, false 
and injurious impressions. It is clear, therefore, that 
there can be no process of redemption from ignorance 
and sin until man receives a revelation of the true 
attributes of God. 



THE MORAL ATTRIBUTES OF GOD CAN NOT BE REVEALED PER- 
FECTLY, BY THE CREATION IN ITS PRESENT CONDITION. 

From the design and adaptation seen in the things 
that are made, men infer the existence of the Supreme 
Being, and the infinite power and wisdom of the God- 
head ; but the circumscribed views which they must 
necessarily take of the creatiofi as a whole, disclose to 
them very imperfectly the moral attributes of the 
Creator. If some being could stand in the present, and 
extend his vision over all the geological series of the 
past, and then forward until the cycle of the earth's 
progress terminates in perfection, then predicating his 
induction upon a perfect creation, he might, as we have 
shown in our fii'st book, learn more of the moral at- 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 203 

tributes of the Divine mind. But in the present con- 
dition of things, the limitation of human vision, and 
the evils, or rather imperfections, noticeable in the 
creation, preclude the possibility of learning, from the 
things that are made, all that man needs to know of 
the moral character of the Maker. 



THE MORAL GOODNESS OF GOD. 

When, in connection with the design apparent in the 
adaptation of things, we study the arrangements visible 
in what is often called tlie general providence of God, 
the natural care (allow the expression) of the Creator 
for his creatures, is apparent. The succession of the 
seasons, the alternation of seed-time and harvest, the 
provision made in nature for the supply of all animal 
wants, indicate the care and kindness of the Creator in 
sustaining and preserving the creatures which he has 
made. But the general providence of God regards all 
creatures alike, irrespective of moral character or desert. 
The order of nature is related only to the temporal 
condition of living beings. From the observation of 
providence men may infer with certain philosophers, 
that God cares for classes, not for individuals ; or with 
certain Jews, that the measure of Divine favor to indi- 



204 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

viduals is the amount of temporal good conferred upon 
any one. But so long as many sentient beings^ capable 
of suffering, and yet incapable of sin, are born in pain, 
and live in pain till they die, the moral attributes of 
God, viewed in the light of providence, will be seen 
obscurely by the human reason. So long as virtue 
often suffers until death from the slanderer's malice, the 
rich man's avarice, or the unjust man's oppressions — so 
long as the innocent suffer in consequence of the crimes 
of others, in which they had no agency, and for which 
suffering they have no redress — so long as temporal 
providences do not redress moral wrongs — no interpre- 
tation of the ways or works of God, as exhibited in the 
present creation, can give to men true knowledge of the 
moral character of the Maker. The natural goodness 
of God, in providing for the things which he has made, 
may be inferred in a general sense, from the order of 
nature and the fitness of things ; but from creation in 
a state of progress, before it has reached the perfect, 
God must be imperfectly known. 

THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD CAN BE REVEALED ONLY 
THROUGH A BEING THAT POSSESSES A MORAL NATURE. 

No being can manifest an attribute of its Maker 
unless that attribute is impressed tipon its nature, or 
may be inferred from the relations which God has con- 



I 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 205 

stituted between it and other things. The Creator 
could not reveal justice^ or conscience, or holiness, 
through beings which possess no such attributes. There 
is nothing in inferior animals, or in inanimate things, 
that can communicate or illustrate the nature of moral 
attributes. These must be learned from moral beings, 
and from the administration of moral government. 
Moral qualities can be manifested only through a being 
that possesses those qualities ; and as man alone, of all 
things created in our world, is endowed with these, 
hence he is the only being through whom and to whom 
may be manifested the moral attributes of the Creator. 
This conclusion may be strengthened by the reason 
of the case. Would not human nature be a bette]^ 
medium through which the Divine Logos might reveal 
himself than any inferior nature ? Would it be un- 
worthy of God, or discordant with reason, that the 
Divine attributes should be fully and truly revealed 
through the highest nature and the only moral nature 
upon the earth ? As God has made man capable of 
knowing his true character, and placed him, as a moral 
being in an imperfect world, where he can not know it 
without revelation, is it not due to man that such a 
revelation shall be made ? Would God permit himself 
to be imperfectly manifested to beings capable of com- 
prehending his true character, while yet he withheld a 



206 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

true manifestation of himself by a nature caj)able of 
revealing what men need to know in order to their 
highest good ? The simple statement of the case is 
adapted to induce the conviction that as a human being 
is the only medium adaj)ted to the highest manifesta- 
tion of the G-odhead^ hence humanity would be the 
medium or mediator through which final or perfect 
knowledge of God would be revealed to men. 



AN ADMISSION AND AN OBJECTION CONSIDERED. 

At this point those who reject the doctrine of the 
special revelation of God in Christ will admit our con- 
clusion. It is admitted^ say they^ that human nature 
is the best and only adequate medium of Divine com- 
municatioii;, but God has bestowed moral faculties upon 
all human beings^ therefore^ every human being mani- 
fests the moral character of God^ because it is a neces- 
sary inference that he who bestows moral faculties upon 
any class of creatures, must himself possess a moral 
nature. G-od may bestow inferior faculties^ but he can 
not bestow faculties superior to his own. 

We admit the inference that he who bestows moral 
faculties must have a moral nature. Let it be agreed 
that every sane man^ in whose life the action of moral 
faculties is apparent, manifests, in some degree, the 



1 



.RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 207 

morcal cliaractcr of God. But while all thoiightful 
minds harmonize in this conclusion^ another question 
arises out of this aspect of the subject. While it is 
granted that humanity in its present state indicates 
that Grod is a moral beings yet man, in his present con- 
dition, is an imperfect moral being. He has an imper- 
fect moral nature, adapted to the j)resent imperfect 
condition of the earth. *'*^ Can, then, the perfect moral 
excellence of God be derived from the natural character 
of man as a being, or from humanity as a genus ? 

A PERFECT HUMANITY NECESSARY TO THE PERFECT MANIFEST- 
ATION OF GOD. 

Whoever may doubt about the Christian doctrine of 
original sin, or of actual sin existing from the com- 
mencement of moral agency, all will agree that from 
some cause, known or unknown to us, there is no 
human being that possesses a perfect mind in a perfect 
body — a perfect moral and corporeal nature. Every 
mirror of humanity, from which God's moral attributes 
are reflected upon the reason of men, is obscured by 
imperfections, so as to distort, in some degree at least, 

* Eden symbolizes the perfect man in a perfect condition. The imper- 
fect man and the thorns and thistles agree. Man is now a cultivating and 
a cultivable animal. Man cultivates the earth. God cultivates man. 
Earth-culture elevates man in a physical and social condition. Soul-cul- 
ture elevates him as a spiritual and immortal being. 



208 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE.. 

the Divine image. " The brightnees of the Father's 
glory^ and the precise image of his person/' can be re- 
flected with perfect accuracy from no merely human 
mind ever created. God can not manifest his attri- 
butes in a perfect manner through an imperfect me- 
dium. No human being ever possessed perfection in 
conscience^ affections^ and will ; hence no being of our 
race could reveal truly the Divine attributes^ even in 
hind. This being true, the creation of a perfect and 
special humanity was necessary, in order to accomplish 
the manifestation of the Divine in the human. The 
moral attributes of God could be revealed in kind only 
through a perfect man^ and as no such man existed, or 
could exist, in the human family, hence the creation 
of a perfect humanity, or a second Adam was necessary 
in order to communicate to man a true knowledge of 
God.^^ 

AN ALLEGED DIFFICULTY CONSIDERED. 

At this point again a difficulty is interposed, which 
needs to be considered. It is said God can reveal truth 

* Under the Old Testament dispensation, the idea of the perfect was 
actuahzed by their rites of purification and ceremonial sanctification. 
(See Phil, of Plan of Salvation^ chap, vii.) Under the New Testament 
dispensation, the idea is realized in the humanity of Jesus, the second 
Adam ; so that the perfect — a conception required in order to the cultui'e 
of man's moral nature— is given in both dispensations. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 209 

in precept by an imperfect humanity ; we mighty there- 
fore, by inspiration^ instruct men in the knowledge of 
his moral nature. An American writer — to whose work 
we have occasion frequently to refer in this part of our 
subject — ^has discussed this vital inquiry /'•^' and has^ we 
think, clearly shown that perfect precept is not all 
that is necessary to convey a knowledge of the Divine 
character to the human mind. Man needs a revelation 
to his heart as well as to his intellect. Light is not 
love J nor lifcj nor poiveVj in a moral sense. Divine love 
can not be revealed by precept alone. Affinities and 
sympathies enter into the nature of love, and its power 
is rendered effective by self-denial. Love feels and 
acts; and a revealment of love must be a history of 
love-action, not a definition of what love is. Hence a 
fleshly manifestor, a living being, acting by the prompt- 
ings of infinite love, could alone reveal the divine to 
the human. 

Living love is generative — love begets love — every 
living thing begets its kind. Hence the didactic utter- 
ance, even if the definition were perfect, could not com- 
municate the Divine love to the human soul. A living 
being f was therefore necessary, in order to manifest 

* Phil, of Plan of Salvation. 

f "If this view of the case be a right one, the revelation which rea- 
son demands can not be one merely of moral principles or axioms. li 
must be a reveloMon of a living being. It can not, therefore, be one in 



210 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

the living love of Grod. Hence Grod interposed visibly 
and temporally in the Old Testament, and visibly and 
personally in the New, in order to beget love for the 
Lawgiver in the human heart. '' The law came by 
Moses^ grace and truth by Jesus Christ."' 

A riNAL DIFFICULTY CONSIDERED. 

It may be said that if God were' to create a second 
perfect man — a special humanity — with body and soul 
free from imperfections, and if the faculties of this 
perfect man were moved by Divine influence up to the 
amount of their capacity, this would be no more than 
the production of a perfect man, a humanity perfectly 
developed. It is true that, unless superhuman mani- 
festations were made through the perfect human, we 
should only learn the true nature of man. If no mani- 
festation were made through the perfect man above the 
measure of human capability, we could perceive no 
more of God than might be inferred from the maker 
of the perfect human. But the moral powers of the 
human would be perfect in hind, and then, if the 

which events are merely accidents, that can be separated from some idea 
which has tried to embody itself in them. Eacts may be only the drapery 
of doctrines ; but they would seem to be the only possible method of 
manifestation for the Being — ^tho Essential Reason." — Maurice^ s Kingdom 
of Ghrist. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 211 

infinite were revealed in these — ^if, in connection with 
the perfect human^ there was revealed an indwelling 
divinity^ which, when occasion required, developed at- 
tributes perfect in kind up to infinity in strength, then 
that mysterious union of the Infinite with the perfect 
finite would reveal Divinity and perfect humanity con- 
joined in the person of an Immanuel — God with us. 

THE RESULT. 

The result of these views combined is, that in order 
to a true manifestation of the character of Grod to man, 
a perfect humanity was necessary — a mediator between 
God and man. This being given, the moral image of 
God in man would be freed from imperfection. Tlie 
image of the Maher in hind^ hut not in cZeg^ree*''-'— -finite, 
but not infinite, would be revealed in the world. 

Having now the finite image of God in the perfect 
human, in order to manifest the Divine nature, the 
infinite must be seen to dwell in and act through the 
finite. Almighty power and wisdom, conjoined with 
the perfect finite, would unite the divine and human in 
the one person of Christ. The two natures, exercised 
through one person, would manifest both God and 

*"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." — Gen. i. 26. 
" Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of 
hun that created him." — Gol. iii. 10. 



V 



212 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

man. A perfect humanity being given, the Divine 
could then be seen elevated above human power, and 
yet in connection with it ; ••'' and the Divine love above, 
and yet in connection with human love.f The Divine 
prerogative, especially, could be exercised through the 
humanity, while yet the distinction between the human 
and the divine were cleaiiv exhibited. t The Mediator 
would be man to the sense and God to the soul, and 
yet God to the soul through man to the sense. 

mSTORIOAL VERIFICATION. 

In accordance with these deductions, the Son of God 
— the Mediator — was conceived of the Virgin Mar}^, by 
the power of the Holy Ghost. His humanity was thus, 
like the first Adam, created immediately by Divine 
energy, and was consequently free from transmitted 
evil, both of body and soul ; and then, in this perfect 
humanity, ^^ dwelled the fullness of the Godhead bodi- 
ly/' The Logos beccime flesh and dwelled among us, 

* '' He arose, and rebuked the mnds and the sea ; and there was a 
great calm." — Matt viii. 26. 

f '' G-reater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life 
for his friends." — John, xv. 13. "But God commendeth his love toward 
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." — Rom. v. 8. 

X " When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, So:i, 
thy sins he forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting 
there, and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth this man thus speak blas- 
phemies ? who can forgive sins but God only ?" — Mark, ii. 5-7. 



( 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 213 

and thus we receive the "^ liglit of the knowledge of the 
gloiy of God in the face of Jesus Christ/' 

The human and the divine were recognized in the 
person of Jesus by liis disciples, and the doctrine lies 
in plain, intelligible phrase, upon the pages of the 
evangelists. With them Jesus ate and drank as a 
man; but he created food for the multitude as God. 
At the tomb of Lazarus he wept as a man ; but he 
said, '^ Lazarus, come forth V as a God. At his home 
in Nazareth he lived and loved as a man ; upon his 
cross at Calvary he loved and died as a God. His 
agony testified of the man ; the agony of nature testi- 
fied of the God. He gave up the Ghost as a man ; 
after the resurrection he breathed upon the disciples 
and said, ^^Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost,'' as a God. 
Thus, from the baptism to the ascension, power, and 
love, and prerogative, both human and divine, were 
manifested by that mysterious and yet comprehensible 
being, designated by Divine appointment — God with us. 

So true to reason and history, and so perfectly adapt- 
ed to the necessities of human character and condition, 
is the manifestation of God in Christ Jesus. TJie sum 
of the whole is, that, as a true knowledge of God is 
necessary in order to salvation from ignorance and sin, 
and as ^^ no man hath seen G-od at any time" — " nor 
can any man know the Father except he to whomsoever 



214 KESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

the Son shall reveal him'' — therefore, the only-begotten 
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath revealed 
the moral character of the Divine Being to his creature, 
man. " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
himself y not imputing their trespasses unto them'' 



SUB-CHAPTER I. 



LOVE FOR THE LAW-GIVER A SECOND SUBJECTIVE ELEMENT IN 
HUMAN SALVATION. 

The character of the Law-giver being revealed, love 
for that character is necessary, in order that obedience 
may be acceptable to God and a blessing to man. 
Truth is light, hut love is life. Truth in the precept 
is objective, in the sense that the perception of the 
duty imparts no inward moral power to fulfill the re- 
quirement Love is subjective, in the sense tJiat the 
recognition of the object of affection affects the subject, 
morally and vitally. A perception of the rectitude of 
the law, co-existing with love for the Law-giver, im- 
parts both moral power and a moral blessing to the 
soul. Truth without love is like the sun in winter ; it 
enlightens, but the heat is absent which cherishes hfe. 
Light without heat only reveals the deadness of the 
earth ; it does not transform the desolation into forms 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. ^15 

of life and beauty. To know the character of the 
Law-giver is necessary, in order to gnide us into the 
knowledge of duty. To love the Law-giver is neces- 
sary, before we can have spiritual happiness in obe- 
dience. Obedience prompted by knowledge of the pre- 
cept is right ; hut knowledge does not impart power to 
render such obedience. Obedience guided by knowl- 
edge^ and prompted by love^ is life and peace. It is 
easy to perceive that without love for the Law-giver 
the soul could neither be happy in obedience, nor could 
the motive prompting obedience be acceptable with 
God. Nothing but an appreciation of the Divine 
character can produce obedience which is at the same 
time acceptable to the Divine Being and a conscious 
blessing to man. And it is proper here, for the sake of 
connection in the thought^ to notice what will be am- 
plified hereafter, ^. e.^ that love for the Law-giver can be 
generated only by the manifestation of the Law-giver's 
love for us. Love begets love ; and^ as things are con- 
stituted;, in order that love may be generated in human 
bosoms, a manifestation of love on the part of the Di- 
vine Being is a necessary precedent. 



216 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

SUB-CHAPTER 11. 

ADAPTATIONS IN THE MODE OF MANIFESTING DIVINE LOVE. 

We have shown that the knowledge of God in Christ 
is manifested in a manner adajDted to the constitution 
of the human mind. There may be not only a per- 
sonal manifestation of God^ but there are modes of 
manifestation which possess peculiarly-adapted power 
to affect human hearts. Truth may be exhibited by 
such methods^ and in such relations^ as greatly to aug- 
ment its power in and over the human soul. That 
method which has power to awaken more than any 
other^ the perceptive and appreciative powers of the 
human, spirit, is the dramatic — a grouping of life-ac- 
tion, working in adapted scenery and circumstances, 
and imbued with the colors of deep emotion. There 
are in the human soul capabilities to do and to suffer 
which remain latent, unless developed by exigencies 
adapted to call out their power. Most men — perhaps 
every man — is conscious of the existence of such capa- 
bilities. When these dormant energies of the soul in 
others are awakened into life-action by extraordinary 
circumstances, and thus exhibited before the mind by 
perception or conception, the scene and the actors en- 
chain the attention, and bring out a response from the 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 217 

depths of the human heart. It is in vain that one 
who reads the best delineations of Scott or Irving, or 
the " Uncle Tom^' of Mrs. Beecher Stowe, says, " This 
is fiction, and I will not be affected by it as though it 
were fact/' We may say, ^^ This picture is an unreal 
creation of the fancy ;'' Ave may know that it is so, but 
we can not feel that it is so. Powers of the soul, 
deeper and stronger than the intellect, will answer the 
call when truth is personified and dramatized. Hence, 
when a public speaker illustrates his subject by life- 
anecdotes ; when he says — ^^ He did it^' ^' He suffered 
if — ^listless minds and wandering eyes are attracted, 
and memory treasures the illustration while she forgets 
the argument. Thus Jesus, the great Teacher, taught 
in parables ; and '^ without a parable opened he not his 
mouth.'' There is recondite truth, which men should 
understand, involved in this characteristic of the hu- 
man mind. The soul responds, because it sees a devel- 
opment of its own powers. If the scene which it con- 
templates is a truthful delineation of what a man can 
be^ or do, or suffer, the soul will sympathize. When 
humanity is seen working under intense pressure, and 
thus developing the might of its faculties and affec- 
tions in a crisis of trial and passion, then, as like out of 
us awakens like in us, so a presentation of intense life-:^ 

action, clothed in the drapery of emotion, awakens a 

10 



218 KESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

responsive echo through all the chambers of the human 
spirit. 

There is a mocle^ then^ of presenting truth which is 
more effective with the human mind than any other. 
That is when^ by dramatic grouping^ the generic capa- 
bilities of our nature for good or evil^ to do or to en- 
dure^ are developed in earnest action^ wrought into the 
concrete before the eye of the soul. So we are made ; 
the actual and the possible, presented in a life-drama, 
has peculiar j)ower over all the susceptibilities of the 
human, mind. 

This adapted mode being ascertained, the character 
of the Law-giver being revealed, and love for the Law- 
giver being necessary, and that love dependent uj)on a 
manifestation of Divine love — then, in order that the 
soul may be awakened and impressed in the mode 
adapted to move all its susceptibilities most deeply, the 
Laio-giver himself loouM personify love and ohedience 
objectively^ and intensify the effect hy dramatic group- 
ings of life-action and passion. Thus, in a manner 
adapted to the constitution which the Maker has given 
us, would human attention be attracted, and the hu- 
man faculties impressed by the great facts of redemp- 
tion. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 219 



THE REQUIRED MODE ACTUALIZED IN THE LIFE-HISTORY AND LOVE- 
DEATII-OF JESUS. 

Keader, look witli mc and contemplate Christ's life 
of love and laLor^ culminating in the scenes of the 
garden^ the judgment-hall, and the cross. The chief 
personage is divine. ' The love of the Godhead is seen 
exhibiting itself stronger than death. The holy city, 
the peculiar people, priests, Eoman dignitaries, and 
bands of soldiers, are seen in the action of the moral 
sj)ectacle. In the center is Calvary, where a cross is 
elevated in view of men and angels, and upon it the 
Divine Heart throbs in love-throes for the world. The 
sun pales, the earth shudders, the startled elements 
assume an impending scenic aspect, and become a 
dark back-ground, on which is displayed the moral mir- 
acle of Suffering Mercy. During the elemental gloom 
a hand is stretched out, which rends the temple vail, 
and shakes the fabric of the old disj)ensation to its cen- 
ter. The beholders are astonished and convicted. '•' 

* Not only the ingenuous and truthful spirit of this ^narrative, but the 
order of the facts^ which is evidently without design on the part of the 
narrators, in the points we shall notice, bears with it a strong confirma- 
tion of the supernatural occurrences mentioned in the text. When the 
Saviour of men is first elevated upon the cross, there are the contempt 
and mockery of the crowd. Elders, scribes, Jews, the passers-by, and 
the soldiers, all revile the Sufferer, and speak words of bitter derision and 
contumely. But after a short period elapses these same mockers, Gen- 



220 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

The crisis of the death-agony has arrived. Jesus cries, 
'' It is finished V and gives up the ghost. ''•'' "'•*■ ''•'•* ■'••* 
i'5 -:;:- The scene shifts. The powers of death and 
hell lie vanquished. Angels announce the triumph of 
the resurrection, at morning twilight, to women who 
are on a love-errand at the sepulcher. Incidents, sol- 
emn and soul-stirring, for a time iiltervene. The risen 
Eedeemer commissions his disciples to preach the Gos- 
pel to all nations — ^promises the advent of the Holy 

tile and Jew, experience a sudden change of conviction. *' Surely this 
was the son of God!" said the centurion. "All the people," who are 
reported as mockers before the darkness and the earthquake, when they 
saw the things that were done, sruGte their ir easts, and returned into the 
city. Joseph of Arimathea, belonging to a class who, even before tho 
arrest of Jesus, were unwilling to be openly recognized as his disciples, 
goes boldly to Pilate, and asks the body of the crucified. Nicodemus, 
likewise, publicly aids to bury, in a manner testifying his reverence and 
respect, one whom in life he had visited in the night. Why this sudden 
change from contempt and mockery to consternation and penitence in the 
foes of Christ, while at the same time confidence is begotten in the hearts 
of his friends ? The varied and diverse mental emotions given in this 
graphic narration are, by the laws of mind, the sequences of a sudden 
and profound change of mind in relation to the character of Jesus. There 
was no word or manifestation from Christ himself to produce this change. 
It can be accounted for in no other way than by assuming the supernat- 
ural phenomena as having occurred at the crisis marked in the narrative. 
If the apostles were uninspired men, deceived themselves or desiring 
to deceive others, they could not have forged the facts, and then con- 
nected with them the legitimate mental sequences, as they have done. 
But every one who reads their several narrations will be convinced that 
the simple facts are recorded by the writers, without any apprehension on 
their part, of the natural and logical connection which they hold to the 
action and emotion subsequently described. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 221 



Ghost, and ascends from their presence to heaven - 



Anon, the an^ is agitated as by mighty winds — the 
place is shaken where the chosen are assembled — the 
Holy Spirit descends — the symbol of its power and 
purity glows upon the heads of the apostles ; they are 
conscious of the Divine energy, and commence the 
heaven-born mission to conquer the ivorld hy truth 
and LOVE ! 

Thus the mode of manifestation is conformed to the 
human constitution. It impresses the facts of redemp- 
tion upon the soul by a method adapted to accomplish 
the design. When the soul ajDpreciates by faith this 
exhibition of God in Christ, the Divine love for man 
begets love in man for God. The affinity of affection 
which draws the soul to obedience is established be- 
tween the Divine and the human minds. The love- 
death of Christ.^ revealing through fleshy or the sensi- 
bility, the active benevolence of the Divine hea^rt^ com- 
municates LOVE-LIFE to the souls of believers. This 
new affection expels meaner ones, and begets new 
hopes and moral activity in the renewed mind. Those 
whom we love, and that which we hope for, we joyously 
labor for. The soul quickened by love, guided by 
knowledge, and sustained by hope, moves happily in 
the life of obedience. To the believer, God, in the 
love-sacrifice of Calvary, speaks with power^ and speaks 



222 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

to all the faculties and susceptibilities of the human 
soul. The perverted and sleeping conscience is awak- 
ened and rectified. The heart answers in kind, " grace 
for grace.'^ The will, as the resultant of our moral 
and rational nature '^ falls into subjection to the will 
of the Law-giver. Man is redeemed — recovered from 
rebellion and spiritual death, to serve the living God. 
Thus by adapted manifestations of the Divine charac- 
ter, and adapted modes of presenting those manifesta- 
tions to the human mind, under the energy of the 
Divine Spirit, man is redeemed from ignorance and sin, 
and reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. 



SUB-CHAPTER HI. 

Christ's sacrifice in accordance with the progress of 
things, the necessities of man, and the character of 

GOD. 

Isaac Taylok somewhere remarks, that the creation 
of man and the permission of sin may have implied on 

* 'Ev eavTotg KeKn^fieva ryg jU€TaP6?i7jg alrcav: — " In themselves con- 
taining the cause of change : " ^. e. The will is a resultant of changes pro- 
duced within the circle of the individual consciousness by whatsoever 
those changes may be occasioned. — Plato, De Legihics, lib. x. 

So Cicero, I)e Fato, § 9. "Sic quum sine causa animum movcri dece- 
mus : sine externa causa moveri, non omnino sine causa decemus." 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 223 

the part of the Creator the mission and sacrifice of 
Christ. This intimation is suggestive, especially when 
we consider that man, as a moral being, is placed in an 
imperfect physical world. It is probably true to the 
furthest extent, that those first facts implied all the 
series of remedial and redeeming agencies, from the 
creation of man to the close of human history. Pro- 
gress is the method by which the Almighty works, not 
only in one department, but in all departments of crea- 
tion. If Christ had not yet come, the analogy of na- 
ture, or rather the deductions of reason, founded upon 
what we now^ know of the work of creation, would 
teach the student of nature that a teacher of perfect 
morals would come. The transcendent intellect of 
Plato, in a darker age than the present, reached even 
to this conclusion. *••' 

In accomplishing the plan by which God develops 
his character, and especially his essential attribute of 
benevolence, there was a remaining opportunity for a 
manifestation of Divine love more perfect than had 
been revealed before the time of Christ. God had not 
before the day of the crucifixion manifested fully and 
perfectly the strength of the Divine benevolence. He 
had not revealed all the love that means^ metliod^ and a 
Mediator could convey to man ; nor all that it was pos- 

* Platonis Alcibiad. § it 



224 RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

sible for the human mind to appreciate. Love^ es- 
pecially in its temporal aspects^ may be manifested by 
a benefactor without self-denials ; yet^ the highest and 
holiest love can be revealed only by self-denial of one 
for the good of another.'*'* It is self-denial in the flesh, 
or humanity, that affects humanity. In attracting and 
transforming the human heart the love-sacrifice is, 
beyond all question, the highest possible element of 
power. The human mind can appreciate Christ's sac- 
rifice, but it can appreciate nothing more. Death upon 
the cross exhausted the capacity of man to invent 
means that would prolong and intensify death agonies. 
In addition to this utmost agony inflicted upon the 
body, Jesus suffered all that the power of malignant 
passion could inflict upon the mind, and all that sym- 
pathy for others could inflict upon the heart : — his 
mother stood near the cross ! There is no mode, 
means, or medium, by which greater love could be 
manifested by self-denial ; and greater love the human 
heart has no power to appreciate, than that exhibited 
on the cross. 

^ Phil, of the Plan of Salvation, ch. xv. 

*' For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 
God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and by a sacrifice 
for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might 
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." — 
Rom, viii. 3, 4. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 225 

Before the sacrifice of Christy tlien^ there was a 
place for the fuller and stronger manifestations of 
Divine love for man ; since the sacrifice of Jesus no 
possibility remains of revealing to humanity, in its 
present condition, greater love than that manifested in 
the crucifixion. The precejDt, the example, and the 
manifestation of Divine love, are all perfected in Jesus. 
Without Grod in Christ the revelation of the Divine 
nature would not have been complete. The manifest- 
ation of love would not be perfect and infinite. With 
it the ultimate revelation of the Divine nature develops 
the ultimate capabilities of the human soul. Thus the 
truth is sealed beyond further development in the 
present state, because this ultimate manifestation of 
God is adequate to accomplish the ultimate develop- 
ment of the moral nature of man. 



THE MANIFESTATION OF LOVE IN THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST 
ESSENTIAL TO THE HIGHEST GOOD OF MAN. 

The more of pure affection for God and man there is 

in the world, the more elevated and hapjDy will be the 

condition of mankind. But the sum of love in human 

bosoms, as we have seen, can be increased only by a 

manifestation of Divine love for human beings. Man 

can love God no further than he has faith that ^' God is 

10* 



226 RESTOKATION TO OBEDIENCE. 

love/' As the first seed of things are from God, and 
every seed begets its kind, hence the love of God, 
revealed in the sacrifice of Christ, is the seed which, 
planted by faith and vivified by the Holy Spirit, begets 
charity in the human soul. Hence, if man is restored 
to obedience to the law, which requires him to love 
God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself, it 
must be by an influx of love from the Divine heart into 
the human heart. The Divine nature can only be truly 
known to the consciousness of man by a revelation of 
love. It is not by precept alone, but by manifestation 
that God is known to the soul. ^^ God is love!' — ''He 
that loveth is horn of God!' — ''He tliat lovetli not^ 
hnoivetli not God ; for God is love!' — " We love Godj 
beeaiise he first loved us!' A new influx of love from 
the Divine heart was, therefore, the alone means by 
which man could be blessed and elevated beyond 
former conditions. And as, previously to the sacrifice 
of Christ, the love of God was revealed only in 
shadov/s, not in substance, nor in perfection, hence 
the progress and perfection of the scheme of revelation, 
as well as the necessities of human nature, implied the 
final manifestation of the Divine nature in the sacrifice 
of Calvary. 



RESTORATION TO OBEDIENCE. 227 



SUCH A MANIFESTATION INFERRED FROM THE CHARACTER 
OF GOD. 

"God is love/' and Divine love would, from its 
nature, seek manifestation ; because a manifestation 
of love does good, and love in tlie nature seeks good as 
its end. And as, in the economy of revelation, there 
was a place for the introduction of more love-power 
among men, both the plan of God and the nature of 
God would lead him to fill that place and offer that 
sacrifice. Thus the fitness of things — the necessities 
of man's moral nature, and the character of God are 
filled and fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ADAPTATION AND PROCESS OF THE GOSPEL IN RESTORING 
MAN TO IMPARTIAL REGARD FOR HIS FELLOW-MAN, THUS PRO- 
DUCING AFFECTIONATE OBEDIENCE TO THE SECOND TABLE OF 
THE LAW. 

We have shown that love is the element out of 
which springs acceptable obedience to Grod, and we 
have exhibited the process by which man is restored to 
conformity to the first table of the law — supreme love 
to the Laiv-giver, But the divine law requires that we 
should not only love God supremely^ but our neighbor 
as ourself. 

Man is created an active beings a free moral agent ; 
but his active poivers can be developed only under the 
second table of the law — obedience to God is labor for 
man. The agency energized by love constitutes the 
life of righteousness required by the divine law. Now, 
as God needs no active agency on the part of man in 
order to promote His good ; as the will of man can be 
developed into love-action only under the second table 
of the law ; and as it is here alone that man can gio- 



ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL, ETC. 229 



rify God by promoting that love and obedience which 
is demanded by the moral law — we inquire whether the 
manifestation of God in Christ j)rovides for the restora- 
tion of the human soul to equal love for man, and to 
love-action in his behalf ? 

PRELIMINARY PRINCIPLES STATED. 

Both natural and revealed religion teach that assimi- 
lation to the character of God — subjection of the hu- 
man to the Supreme will — is the ultimate duty of man ; 
and the prevailing religions of mankind in times past 
and present have reached^ without much variation, this 
ultimate conception. This is especially true wherever 
time and circumstances have favored a philosophical 
development of any religious system.*'*^* In all such in- 

* The Oriental tlieosophies, which readied full development before or 
about the time of Christ, all contained the idea of acquiescence in the 
Supreme will as the ultimate good of man. The G-nostic sought acquies- 
cence in the Divine will as the supreme good. With them, to rise above 
earthly affections and desires, and attain to a union with the Pleroma, 
was the end of science (gnosis). 

In Plato, who reached the ultimate in the development of spiritualism 
among the Greeks, there is the analogue of the Oriental and Gnostic 
philosophies. The lowest love in Plato's theology is sensual ; the second, 
complex, or sensuo-rational ; the highest, the love of the Absolute Good. 
To rise above the agitations produced by matter and sense, and attain to 
the knowledge and love of the Supreme True and Good, was the aim of 
reason and the end of life. 

So, too, the Hindoo system of the Yedas, still prevalent in the East. 
The disciple, according to the Yedanta exposition of Budhism, must lose 



230 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 

stances human reason reaches the ultimate conception^ 
that the final end and duty of the soul is submission of 
the will — consecration of the self to the Supreme Di- 

his own will, separate himself from sense, and retire into himself by re- 
flection. He learns,* then, that Brahma alone exists — every thing else is 
illusion. To lose the individual will in Brahma, and become quiescent in 
the contemplation of him, is the highest attainment Budhism, according 
to the missionary Medhurst, is developed to this ultimate conception in 
China. And in Siam, according to the statements of Dr. Bradley, the 
idea of quiescence in the Divine will is carried even to the supposition 
that conscious identity is annihilated. 

The religion of Mohammed includes the same idea as its nucleus. 
Islamism is the devotion of self to the supreme will of God. This, as the 
word signifies, is the final end of the Mohammedan ritual. In all sects 
professing the religion of the Koran, Islain, or conformity to Allah, is 
distinctly developed as the '* sum of piety." 

In examining the ground-forms of these systems, we do not always 
find a dogma at the beginning which enjoins self-consecration of the 
worshiper to the Supreme of his system ; but as all religions must assume 
that God is supreme and man a dependent subject, the reason develops 
unfailingly (shall we say, constitutionally ?) the final exposition that the 
finite finds its highest good in assimilation to the will of the Infinite. 

But as God in no system of natural religion is conceived of as denying 
himself for human good, hence the human will can be brought to this 
benevolent activity only by faith in Christ. 

The philosophers of the most enlightened age of Greece seem gener- 
ally to have adopted the same opinion. Aristotle, in his Ethics, argues 
from the nature of the gods that happiness consists in abstract contem- 
plation, even in a contemplation by which no moral action was developed. 
Thus the philosophies and the rehgions which are the product of the un- 
aided reason agree in a tenet which is antagonistic to human progress, 
and to the active virtues which Christianity and the moral wants of hu- 
man nature require. 

Aristotle in his Ethics, book x. ch. viii., thinks that good men, being 
members of society, will act virtuously, because they must act from the 
necessity of their circumstances ; yet he says, '• that perfect happiness is 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 231 

vinity. But if the character of tliat Divinity^ if the 
will of the Supreme, he not active benevolence for man 
as a family^ the human will^ by consecration, docs not 
become benevolent. The inert, or selfish, or malignant 
character of the object to which the will is consecrated, 
paralyzes or perverts the human powers, instead of de- 
veloping them into active obedience to the second table 
of the law. 

But in order to fulfill the second table of the law, the 
act of the will must originate in love to man ; in love 
to man as a being ; in love to the true character of 
man, as God created him. We are prepared now to 
inquire whether faith in Christ produces love for man, 
and whether submission of the will to Christ produces 
love-action for the good of man ? 

a kind of contemplative happiness might be shown from hence, that we 
suppose the gods to be pre-eminently blessed and happy. But what 
moral acts can we attribute to them ? — Shall they be acts of justice ? 
Would they not appear ridiculous making bargains, or restoring deposits, 
or such-like acts ? Or shall we attribute to them courageous actions that 
they may undertake formidable things, or meet dangers, because this 
would be honorable ? Or shall we attribute to them benevolent actions ? 
— but to whom shall they give? * * * Even if they are temperate, 
what would follow? — Is not praise absurd, because they have no bad de- 
sires ? And if we went through everij case of moral action they would seem 
small and uniuorthy of gods. Yet all suppose that they live and cogitate, 
for they do not sleep like Endymion. To him, therefore, who lives, tut is 
ahstracted from moral action, and still more so from production, what is 
left but contemplation ? So that the energy of the Divine Being, as it 
exceeds in blessedness, must be contemplative : and. therefore, of human 
energies that which is nearest aUied to this must he the happiest^^ 



232 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 



BY FAITH IN CHRIST WE LOVE BOTH THE TRUE GOD AND THE 
TRUE MAN AT THE SAME TIME. 

We liave spoken of the fact that in Christ a true 
humanity was revealed in union with the Divinity, hut 
we have not exhibited the reasons and relations of this 
merciful revelation of the true human nature. 

It was not only necessary that the character of God 
should he revealed^ in order that man might love the 
true God, but it was likewise necessary that the true 
character of man should he revealed, in order that man 
m^ight love the true man, Christ was both the true God 
and the true man. In him God was manifested as he 
isj and man tvas manifested as he should be. Our race 
had lost the knowledge of the true man as certainly 
and as hopelessly as they had lost the knowledge of 
the true God. By faith in Christ we believe both in 
the true God and the true man at the same time. Se, 
therefore, ivho loves Christ, loves both the true God and 
the true man in Him. Faith in Christ works hy love to 
man as he should he, and hy lahor to make man what he 
should he. 

Now, if we love the true humanity in Christ, we will 
love it every where. Humanity in Christ is generic. 
It is the second Adam ; the impersonation of man as 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 233 

God created liim ; tlie true soul^ faculties, and suscepti- 
bilities of the being, man. 

God and man being thus united in Christ, it is not 
possible to love God in Christ without loving man in 
Christ at the same time. Thus the manifestation of 
God in Christ produces in the human soul love for both 
God and man. It brings the soul into conformity tuith 
both divisions of the lata, '^ He therefore who saith, I 
love God, and hateth his brother, is a liar/'-*^" His 
brother that he hath seen is in his nature, although 
sin-marred in character, a living type of the humanity 
of Jesus. The true humanity is a finite moral image 
of the infinite God. In kind, but not in degree of ex- 
cellence or power, the perfect moral nature of man is a 
created image of the divine. He, therefore, w^ho loveth 
not his brother whom he hath seen, loves not the true 
God whom he hath not seen. But every one who is as- 
similated by faith to the character and will of Christy 
loves both the true God and the true man, in him, at 
the same time. 

the practical operation of these principles. faith in" 
Christ's sacrifice produces love — faith in his life pro- 
duces ACTION. 

We come now to the practical application of these 
foundation principles of the Gospel : — Christ being 

* 1 John, iv. 20. 



I 






234 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 

recognized and loved as the Supreme, what character 
and conduct would be the product of the consecration 
of the will to Him ? 

No one doubts but that love for Christ is the true 
motive power of the Grospel. This is assented to by all 
Protestant denominations, and by all benevolent asso- 
ciations that labor to enlighten and save men. We 
will, therefore, assume here what we have proved before^ 
that the motive power in all Gospel effort is the love of 
Christ, and proceed to show how faith, which works by 
love, guides men into that benevolent activity of which 
the self-denial of Christ for human good is both the 
motive and the model. 



CHRIST THE MODEL-MAN". FAITH IN HIS LIFE PRODUCES BENEV- 
OLENT ACTION FOR HUMAN GOOD. 

Love for Christ as the true man produces labor to 
make others like Christ. The character of Jesus is the 
standard to which the believer aspires, and to which he 
will labor to bring others. The love of Christ makes 
him the model into which Christians labor to fashion 
the human character. There are men destitute of liv- 
ing faith in Clirist, who are, no doubt, sincerely endeav- 
oring to benefit their fellow-men, and whatever character 
may be the model of excellence with any such class of 



I 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 235 

men^ they will endeavor to mold society into that form. 
Love for a model character must^ by the laws of mind, 
produce this effect. If loe love those for loliom loe 
labor J ice loill labor to make them like those icliom ice 
love, A man whose ideal of excellence is some distin- 
guished statesman, if he love no standard more than 
this, will desire that his son should attai-n to the same 
excellency. So when the ideal model is a successful di- 
rector of monetary or military affairs, the father or 
friend will endeavor to conform those he loves best to 
that standard, if the attainment of the character be 
within the limit of hopeful ambition. So there are ideal 
conditions, in which men of good intentions seek the 
happiness of society. Some would have all in com- 
munities, seeking their chief good in equal worldly 
condition.'-^ Other philanthropists seek the chief good 

* Such men as Owen of Lanark, and Horace G-reely of New York, 
possessing apparently a natural good will for man, which we sometimes 
see exhibited both in ancient and modern times, have labored long, and 
expended large amounts of money, to perfect the scheme of social com- 
munities. But such schemes must forever fail to produce happiness, or 
gain the ends desired. The individuals are brought together in all such 
instances by selfishness. In the communal arrangement each seeks his 
supreme good. But the aggregation of selfish individuals can not produce 
benevolence. Selfish action and self-seeking only confirm a' selfish dis- 
position, and the accumulation of selfishness in such associations will, in 
the end, produce an explosion, which will scatter the fragments again 
into common society. In the United States this has alreadj^ been the 
result in many cases. This was the result of Owen's effort on the Wabash, 
in the State of Indiana. Society might be benefited, and social comfort 
and usefulness produced, in some cases, by association. With the Chris- 



236 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 

of men in some new arrangement of the social economy. 
Among men who are not influenced by faith in Christ, 
which makes Him the standard of human excellence, 
plans to attain the good of man as an individual 
are as various as they were in the days of the Grreek 
sages, of whom Varro writes that they sought the 
chief good in a multitude of diverse conditions. 
Without love for Christ there can be no unanimity 
among men in their efforts to promote human welfare. 
All who reject the Christian faith, and depend for ulti- 
mate good on objective conditions, make the radical 
mistake of supposing that man's chief good consists 
in objective attainments, not in subjective exercises. 
To seek the chief good in any object that does not pro- 
duce love and purity within us, is to destroy the peace 
for which we seek. As the man who drinks of a poi- 
soned fountain, the more he drinks the more he thirsts, 
so is the fool who endeavors to satisfy his spiritual 

tian principle, as it exists in Moravian communities, wliere love for Christ 
produces labor for man as the primary object of life, associated labor is 
happy and successful labor, because it is a labor of love. It satisfies con- 
science, relieves men of all sense of danger regarding the comfortable 
maintenance of self and children, takes away temptations to self-aggran- 
dizement, and aids social enjoyment ; while at the same time the laborer 
every day enjoj^s the hope of future blessedness, and if self-denials are to 
be made, they are made for Christ's sake. Thus selfishness is restrained, 
from marring the bonds which unite the society, and its power over the 
minds of individuals is abated, because the action and the aim is directed, 
not for self as an end, but for Christ and humanity. 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 237 

wants by temporary aliment. '•'" Social arrangements and 
temporal acquisitions may be auxiliaries to happiness in 
tlie case of those who have purifying love in their hearts, 
but these, without subjective benevolence, can not give 
life or happiness. Men might raise a suffering mendi- 
cant as high as temporal acquisition could elevate him, 
while still his happiness would be less and his influence 
Worse. The highest good of man consists in that state 
of mind in which his action is prompted by love. To 
bring men into the life of love^ so that they will act in 
accordance with the lata of love^ is to accomplish the 
end in which alone the nature of the soul, and the laws 
of the moral universe, will allow man to find his chief 
good. Now, Jesus Christ is the model of this attain- 
ment, both in character and action, hence the love of 
Christ is the only impulse that both moves and guides 
the soul in right action for the good of man.f 

* " Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." "This 
night" of the soul, when in its moral darkness it endeavors to satisfy itself 
by temporal acquisitions. 

f Do we, then, discard the efibrts of those who, while they are without 
faith in Christ, labor to promote human interests ? By no means ! We 
desire neither to discard nor discredit such efforts. One of the highest 
instincts of living beings is sympathy with the wronged and the suffer- 
ing. Even in the orders of animals below man, the cry of distress will 
arouse creatures of the same species, and bring them to the rescue of the 
suffering one. The philanthropist who obeys the highest instinct of our 
nature, and ralUes to the rescue of the wronged or the needy, evinces 
nobility of nature for beyond those who, v/hile they may profess to love 



238 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 



THE LOVE OF CHRIST PRODUCES LOVE TO MAN AS A GENUS. 

Another cliaracteristic development of the human 
soul produced by love to Christ is^ that those who pos- 
sess it will oppose every thing which injures man. 
Christians love man for the sake of his nature — ^his true 
nature^ as revealed in the Mediator. It is the love of ^1 
humanity^ not the love of some single attribute or 
condition of humanity ; the love of humanity, in itself 
considered^ not the love of one race or class of the 
human family. 

Now, an individual who loves man as man^ will 
oppose every thing which degrades his character, abates 
his happiness, or impairs his rights. A Christian father 
loves his son — that son is beset by several evils ; one 
man aims to lead him into vice, another to make him a 
slave, another to keep him in mental error or personal 
degradation — the father will not only oppose one, but 
all of these ; and the opposition of the parent will be 
strong in proportion to the magnitude of the evil sought 
to be inflicted upon the object of his afiection. This is 
the very nature of love ; a person who loves another 

Christ, deny by their conduct both the higher instincts of humanity and 
the holier impulses of divine love in the heart. Love for the true Christ 
gives divine life to the natural instinct, and rightly directs human eflforts 
for human good. 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 239 

can not do otlierwise tlian oppose every tiling which 
injures the person or the interests of the loved object. 
And not only in relation to all evils^ but a father will do 
so in relation to all Ms children. If he feel thus toward 
one and not toward another, he has lost the true in- 
stincts of a parent's heart. If he is very hostile to one 
influence which would injure his child, while he is will- 
ing he should be iujured by some other, his mind is 
blinded or perverted. Love, in its nature and its de- 
velopment, is opposed to every thing that will injure 
the object of affection. Such love for man faith in 
Christ begets in the human soul. The Christian loves 
man as man ; wherever, therefore, there is a human 
nature, he will oppose every thing that mars the attri- 
butes or defiles the susceptibilities of that nature. A 
man who loves Christ loves every man, because every 
man bears the image of that humanity Vvdiich he loves 
in the person of the Mediator. The image is marred^ 
indeed, in its moral features ; hence, as we have shown^ 
love will produce labor to redeem the fallen and restore 
the true humanity. 

The love of Christ, therefore, produces effort for hu- 
man good that is ^^ without partiality and without 
hypocrisy."^' The true friend of man can not be op- 
posed to war and at the same time tolerate slavery ; he 
can not oppose slavery while he knowingly encourages or 



240 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 

perpetrates other wrongs whicli degrade or injure men. 
In whatever heart love to the true Christ lives^ opposi- 
tion to every thing which wrongs or defiles man is one 
of its natural developments. Christ recognizes human 
nature as His nature^ and the principle is incorporated 
into the phraseology of that decree which settles the 
final destiny of the soul — "Inasmuch as ye did it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren^ ye did it 
unto me/' 

LOVE FOR HUMANITY AS REVEALED IN CHRIST PRODUCES EFFORT 
FOR THE VARIOUS CLASSES AND CONDITIONS OF MEN IN PRO- 
PORTION TO THEIR NEED. 

A third characteristic development of the love which 
is produced by faith in Christ is^ that it leads men to 
labor first and most for those who most need sympathy 
and effort. This is so plain a characteristic of divine 
love — it is exhibited so fully in the character and 
teachings of Christy that it is a matter of wonder that 
many in all ages^ professing regard for the Gospel^ have 
misconceived or overlooked this characteristic action of 
a benevolent will. 

It is the nature of love that it develops itself for its 
objects without partiality and without hypocrisy. A 
mother has a family of children ; she loves all her off- 
spring alike ; but one is suffering and in danger^ and 



THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW. 241 

therefore needs her assistance more than others. What 
will that mother do ? Will she administer to others 
while she neglects the suffering one ? Not if she has 
a mother's heart. A mother will leave those who need 
her care less and go to befriend and succor those in 
want of sympathy or assistance. True love can do 
nothing else. That love is partial or impure that does 
not distribute to its objects in proportion to their meas- 
ure of want. If the love of humanity^ as a nature, 
dwell in our hearts when one class of men need effort 
in their behalf more than others, Christian love directs 
effort to the more needy. This is the nature of true 
love, both human and divine, and the one is illustrated 
by the other. 

To guide the human mind into unselfish and unsec- 
tarian effort for human good, the Saviour has presented 
truth in varied and striking forms. When the disci- 
ples of John came in their master's name to inquire 
whether Jesus were the Messiah, he replied — ^^ Go, tell 
John that I bestow temporal benefits first upon those 
who are most needy : the ^oor — the sick — the hlind I 
and so I do spiritually ; tlie jpoor have the Gospel 
preached unto themj' John knew the characteristics 
of Divine Love. The message settled the question : 
and that Voice which reproved sin in high places^ prob-^ 

11 



242 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO 

ably exulted in the confirmation of its utterances be- 
fore it was hushed by the ax of the executioner. 

A Jew^ professing to love God, and who assented to 
the sum of the divine law, asked Jesus — ^' Who is my 
neighbor ?" In answer we have the striking parable 
of the man who fell among thieves. Some who pro- 
fessed to teach the prevailing religion passed by the 
helpless sufferer, while yet relief was granted by one 
whom the Pharisees supposed to be an alien from the 
true faith, and who was not, probably, so orthodox in 
theory as themselves. Jesus approved the conduct of 
the Samaritan — sanctioned it for all time as an illus- 
tration of true neighborship ; and commanded the 
inquirer to "go and do likewise.^' 

Superadded we have the parables of the lost sheep 
and the lost piece of money. The true shepherd will 
leave the ninety-and-nine who are in less danger, to 
succor the one exposed to the wolf and beasts of prey. 
The import of this teaching can not be doubted ; that 
alone is moral love for man which produces labor 
first and most for those in greatest need of sympathy 
and succor. 

This moral love for man, which fulfills the second 
table of the law, is exemplified and illustrated by the 
life of the Son of God, and by all the apostles and. 
evangelist^ and martyrs of Christ, whose history is 



THE SECOND TABLE. OF THE LAW. 243 

referred to in tlie New Testament. The higher reason 
and the influence of the Divine Spirit in the heart 
likewise teach this doctrine. The truth of the state- 
ment is beyond controversy, that with those who have 
faith in the true man as revealed in Christ, love rises 
and urges in proportion to the wrongs and helplessness 
of men. This characteristic needs not to be argued 
with the Christian's heart. Jesus left the bosom of the 
Father — he left the adoring presence of obedient spir- 
its, and came to seek and to save those ivJio ivere lost. 
And every one whose will is assimilated to that of 
Christ will go and do likewise. Thus the active moral 
powers of the soul, which are paralyzed or perverted by 
a false faith, find their ultimate and true development 
by faith in Christ — a development which harmonizes 
the will of the believer with the plan and labor of 
Christ in saving lost men. 

The conclusion, then, we think, is fairly gained, that 
the revelation of the human nature in connection with 
the divine nature in Christ consecrates the will of those 
who love Jesus to the glory of God in the good of men. 
The spirit and the example of the true man as exhib- 
ited in the life of Christ — tlie autliority which the di- 
vine gives to the human hy the connection of the two; and 
added to these, the weightiest sanction by which hu- 
man duty can be enforced — the sanction of the judg- 



244 ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL^ ETC. 

ment^ in which Christ identifies himself with the 
wronged and suffering classes of men^ recognizes his 
own nature in them, and receives acts done for them as 
done for him, and to him : all these unite to develop 
the will of man into love — labor for human good, and 
to confirm the soul in benevolent obedience. 

Thus does the manifestation of the true Grod and the 
true man in Christ mold the moral powers of our na- 
ture into the character of active benevolence which is 
required by the law — it meets the ultimate demand of 
the human reason, and transforms the satisfied and 
sanctified human spirit into the image of the Ke- 
deemer. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN CIIEIST, CONSIDEEED 
IN ITS EELATIONS TO THE FUTURE LIFE. 

We have noticed the possibihty and the method of 
redemption, and the final issue in the development of 
a benevolent will ; and we have shown that law can 
not be broken, even for mercy's sake. We will notice 
now, finally, the manner in which mercy is adminis- 
tered in adaptation to the mental constitution of man, 
as a being destined to exist during the present and the 
future life. 

THE OPPOSITE POLES OF THE AFFECTIONS. 

We can not love two things of opposite characters at 
the same time : to whichsoever a man determines, he 
will, as he grows in love to one, become opposed to the 
other.*-''* Love and hatred are the opposite poles of the 
affections. One can not exist without its antagonism ; 

* '' If he love the one he wiU hate the other : ye can not serve God 
and Mammon," — Jesus. 



246 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

therefore^ where love to one cliaracter exists^ alienation 
from the opposite character exists necessarily. This 
is law in the moral world — this the nature of moral 
beings. 

It is likewise a law. governing both our physical and 
mental economy^ that each faculty is strengthened by 
exercise^ while the non-use or misuse j)aralyzes or per- 
verts both the physical and moral faculties. As the 
action of one arm and the non-action of the other will 
develop the one and paralyze the other^ so mental 
habits of one moral character^ strengthen the disposi- 
tion to act in that direction and destroy the disposi- 
tion to act in a different one. The moral powers^ by 
their own exercise, strengthen themselves to act in 
the chosen direction, while they lose strength to act 
in the opposite. Jesus spoke according to these laws — 
He that increased his talent by proper use, received the 
reward of ten pounds. He that paralyzed his ability 
to do good by disuse or abuse, received the sentence — 
^^ Take from him his talent.'^ '' Whosoever hath, to 
him shall be given ; and whosoever hath not, even that 
which he hath shall be taken from him/^^^ 

* Matt. XXV. 28, 29. 



GOD IN c n E I S T. 247 



THE NATURAL ACTION OF THE MIND CONFIRMS A WORLDLY AND 
SELFISH CHARACTER. 

The mind is an ever-active being ; and liuman hap- 
piness^ as we have shown^ depends upon the right exer- 
cise of the moral faculties. But by nature every man's 
faculties are first exercised by the things of the earth. 
The objects of the earth first attract our attention and 
develop our affections. We do not inquire here^ why 
men are in their present moral condition. ^' That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh.'" To the fact^ so far 
as it is necessary in our argument^ all men will assent. 
The affections and will are first attached to^ and exer- 
cised by^, earthly objects. 

This attachment to earthly objects " grows with our 
growth and strengthens with our strength.'' Thus the 
natural exercises of the mind tend to confirm a selfish 
and unsatisfied spirit — selfish^ because earthly ends are 
sought from supreme love to ourselves ; and unsatisfied, 
because the aliment is not adapted to the want. The 
appetite for bread can not be satisfied with ^^ a stone.'" 
It is absurd to suppose that temporal good will satisfy 
spiritual wants. 



248 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

THE PENALTY INDUCED BY SUPREME ATTACHMENT TO EARTHLY 

OBJECTS. 

Although the objects of the world can not satisfy 
those who seek them as their chief good, yet to separate 
worldly minds from the objects of their love renders 
them miserable. The heart will ache and bleed w^hen 
it is separated from the objects of its supreme regard : 
'^ It is home where'er the heart is/' The principle is 
fundamental and unfailing — " where the treasure is^ 
there will the heart be also/' 

Now the objects which are loved supremely on earth 
can not be transferred into a future state. When a 
man dies^ he must^ from the nature of the case^ either 
lose or gain happiness by the transition. If the objects 
of his supreme affection are on earth, he leaves them ; 
if they are in the spiritual world, he goes to them. 
Those who loved the objects of earth supremely will be 
separated from their idols. The transient and un- 
satisfying gratification which they afforded by self- 
elevation or sensuous enjoyment must cease. The 
selfish spirit must enter the next life with desolated 
affections, and a disposition confirmed in aversion to 
spiritual and holy things. The man who fails of the 
grace to love God supremely and man impartially, loses 
his highest good by violating the highest law. While 



GOD IN c n K I S T . 249 

here^ lie was unsatisfied in possessing earthly good ; 
and there his soul is desolate, being separated from ob- 
jects which he most desired. 



ANOTHER ASPECT OF THE PENALTY CONSEQUENT UPON 
PERVERTED AFFECTIONS. 

The supreme love of earthly good not only confirms 
the soul in selfishness, but it engenders and strength- 
ens evil passions. When earthly objects are supreme 
with the mind, they are sought for the sake of self- 
Thus the whole action of the life tends to confirm self- 
ishness in those Avho seek their chief good on earth. 
Self is the motive, and self, in some relation, the end 
of their activity. But minds thus confirmed in selfish- 
ness must, from the nature of the case, in seeking self- 
elevation or self-gratification, come into conflict with 
each other. And whenever the selfishness of one beings 
in pursuit of selfish ends, hinders or defeats another, 
evil passions will rise to agitate and curse the mind. 
Thus, by violating the law of God, which requires su- 
preme love for the Supreme Being, and equal love for 
man, the soul works out for itself dire unrest in this 
world, and secures for itself the curse of a selfish heart, 
possessed by evil passions in the world to come. To 

love God and man is positive good in the soul; to love 

11* 



250 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

self more than these violates the supreme moral law, 
and engenders hell in human hearts. 



INTERWOEKING OF THE GOSPEL WITH THE LAWS OF MIND. 

How^ now^ is the Grospel adapted to save the soul 
from its natural affections and tendencies^ and induce^ 
in their steady the elements of heaven ? The general 
answer to this inquiry is obvious : in view of the prin- 
ciples before stated, the Gospel adaptation would be 
found in such manifestations and methods of grace as 
are fitted to transfer the affections from earthly to 
heavenly objects. In this condition alone the soul finds 
life. Is, then, the Gospel mercy, in its process and its 
power, adapted to transfer supreme affection from 
earthly to heavenly objects, and to do this in accord- 
ance with the laws of mind ? 

We have already noticed the generative nature of 
love, and that the love of God in Christ is so manifest- 
ed as to produce in human hearts love for the Lav>^- 
giver. We have noticed that the method of the mani- 
festation is the one best adapted to awaken and enliven 
all the powers of the human soul. In these particulars, 
the means and the methods by which they are applied 
are adapted to attract the affections from the objects 
of earth, and attach them to the objects of heaveo. 



GOD IN CHRIST. " 251 

We desire here to exhibit tlie same subject in other 
views, which rehite more particidarly to the transition 
of the soul from the scenes of 'the present to those of 
the future state. 

In order that the dwellers in this world may love the 
objects of the spiritual world, those objects must be 
manifested to us on earth. Man, as a mortal, is an 
earthly being. He is localized on the earth. His affec- 
tions, as we have noticed, naturally seek their objects 
of attachment in the earth. We are so constituted and 
so located that an object must approach us in order 
that the susceptibilities may be affected by its excel- 
lency or its power. In order, therefore, that men may 
become attached to the objects and principles of the 
kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven must '^ come 
nigh unto us.''' 

Now, these local necessities of men are met by the 
revealment of the kingdom of heaven in the person and 
precepts of Christ. The King of the heavenly world^ 
the objects which should be supremely loved, come 
down to earth, and act in connection with the living 
scenes and interests of humanity. Jesus exhibits to 
men the inferior character of earthly things, and re- 
veals, in contrast with these, his own spiritual excel- 
lences, and the value of spiritual blessings. The objects 
of heaven live on the earth in the presence of men. 



252 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

The laws of tlie ^^ kingdom of GrocV — those which pre- 
vail beyond the grave — the spirit of the angelic spheres 
— that which moves the* affections of all loyal subjects 
of the Divine government^ are here — all are here — luitli 
^ men — on earth — in time. 

These objects being revealed on earth in man's home, 
are thus presented before the mind in contrast with 
those earthly things which seek our supreme regard. 
By this method of mercy^ the individual^ whose affec- 
tions had been drawn to the things of earth as his 
chief good^ is met in the same earthly circumstances 
by the spiritual objects which should be supreme in his 
soul. They are so presented that the eye of faith is 
invited to perceive the glories of the Saviour. The 
sympathies of the Mediator's flesh is adapted to attract 
human sympathy — the affinities are brought near that 
they may affect each other. And then the fingers of 
mercy, energized by Divine influence, untwine the ten- 
drils of the heart from their inordinate attachment to 
perishable objects, and the spiritualized affections trem- 
ble toward Jesus, as the magnetized needle trembles to 
the pole. 

Thus, by the revealment on earth of the objects of 
heaven, by the human sympathies through which they 
are administered, the objects of heaven attract the af- 
fections of believers on earth. The treasure of the 



GOD IN CHRIST. 253 

soul is tlien no longer with earthly objects^ hut with 
heavenly objects. Thus the life is hid with Christ in 
Gocl. The new affection is now supreme in the human 
soul. Earthly attachments may exist, but they are 
subordinated in the soul's estimation to those which are 
spiritual. The pressure of selfish objects continues 
upon the affections ; but they now become a tempta- 
tion, which often give the soul trial and solicitude, 
where before they were the supreme attraction. 

Now it must, we think, be apparent to the reason of 
every one, that when such a mind leaves the earth, it 
leaves solicitudes and trials to find blessedness in ap- 
proaching into nearer communion with the objects of 
its affections. Its treasure, while on earth, was in- 
heaven; it therefore leaves the earth to obtain its 
treasure ; ^^ It is home where'er the heart is :'' the 
sanctified heart, even while on earth, is with its treas- 
ure in heaven ; — to die, therefore, is to go home : 

'* Then welcome death ; thy freezing kiss 
Emancipates — the rest is bhss." 



JOY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRINCIPLE 
OF PROGRESS. 

We have noticed the considerations which teach that 
the method of Divine government includes the principle 



254 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

of moral progress. By fciith in Christ progress in 
moral, good becomes an element of happiness to the 
soul. The soul rejoices in the advancement of interests 
in which its affections are engaged. All benevolent 
minds find their happiness increased by the advance- 
ment of moral purity and moral principles on the 
earth. The '' angels rejoice over one sinner that re- 
penteth.'' The repentance of each individual that re- 
turns to obedience is an advance of good in the moral 
government of God. The principle of progress secures 
constant gratification to all who are interested by faith 
in the person and plans of the Eedeemer. Now the 
kingdom of Christ is established upon the earth among 
men^ and the advancement of its interests engage the 
sympathy and efforts of all who love the Lord. Thus^ 
in the present life^ the interests of the Christian heart 
are linked with moral progress in the government of 
God. The advance^ therefore, of moral interests in 
the world becomes a spiritual blessing to the Christian 
mind. The principle of progress in the government of 
God thus provides a perpetual source of joy for all who 
love the reign of Christ. 

The Scriptures exhibit this truth directly and by 
implication. They speak of Cliristians as being in 
sympathy with the progress of Christ^s kingdom — they 
represent the spirits of the just as interested in the 



GOD IN cnniST. 255 

development of the plan of salvation upon tlie eartli/-**' 
and angels as ministering spirits find tlieir joy in moral 
progress. The mysterious utterances of the Apoca- 
lypse are, at least, intelligible upon this point. As the 
Lord of lords goes forth by his truth, providence, and 
spirit, conquering and to conquer, at every new con- 
quest achieved by truth and love, the friends of the 
Lamb in heaven and upon earth worship and utter 
demonstrations of joy and triumph. Their sympathies 
are with the progress of truth, and as the Gospel 
triumphs over error and selfishness, they are exhilarated 
and blessed. 

Now the man whose soul is awakened and identified 
in will and sympathy with the Prince and the principle 
of progress, is linked in with a law that will secure his 
interests and produce joy in the future life. It is prob- 
able that the principle of progress prevails throughout 
the moral universe. It is certain that it prevails in this 
world, to which human sj)irits belong, and in» which 
those who love Christ become engaged in the advance 
of moral interests. Hence in this life, but more es- 
pecially in the next, the knowledge that the power of 
God is exerted to advance moral good will produce 
worship, and the fact of advance will produce joy. As 
the triumphs of moral power go on — as the Papacy 

* Luke, ix. 30, 31. Revelation, xx.ii. 9. 



256 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

rocks and struggles to its fall — as slavery is abated and 
abolished — as light penetrates the dark places of the 
earth — as individual transgressors repent and return to 
obedience^ the soul in sympathy with moral progress 
will triumph in the triumphs of moral power — and the 
spontaneous utterances of the heart will be '' AUeluiah ! 
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth/' 

''Exult, ye saints!— ye can not fail; 

Your destiny ye bind 
To that supreme, eternal law. 

Which rules the march of mind. 
As God still lives, and as the soul 

Is his undying breath. 
Ye shall exult when hoary wrongs 

Are smitten unto death." 

Thus the constitution of man's moral nature harmo- 
nizes with the principle of progress in the moral crea- 
tion, and whosoever is restored to harmony with the 
laws of the moral universe, finds here and hereafter in 
the prii?ciple of moral progression a source of unfailing 
interest and joy. 

THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LIFE. EXPOSITION OF THE 

PRINCIPLE. 

The connection between the present and future state 
is constituted not only in harmony with the laws of the 
affections, as we have seen, but likewise in harmony 



GOD IN CHRIST. 257 

with the laws of the intelligence. The impressions 
made upon our senses by outward objects, and the 
thoughts which are originated by these^ are the fur- 
niture of the mind and the treasure of the memory. 
The spirit lives in itself by digestion, or by reflection 
upon first thought, furnished by sensation. Then, by 
a law of the mind, reflection brings the object that first 
awakened the perception into the presence of the soul. 
By faith spiritual objects make an impression upon the 
internal life, as outward objects do upon the senses. 
What the objects and action of temporal phenomena 
are to the sensuous man, spiritual objects recognized 
by faith are to the spiritual man. If a man be shut up 
in a prison whose mind lives upon the objects of the 
external world, when the prison-door is closed he is 
separated from his chief good ; the consequence is, a 
bereaved and unhappy mind. He must then live by 
reflection. If he deserve his doom, reflection Avill 
make him unhappy. And if he does not deserve it, 
reflection will still make him unhappy, because his soul 
will feed on his own sin or the sins of others. But if 
the chief love of the soul be spiritual, then by reflection 
the object of love will be j) resent in the soul, and the 
presence of a chief love always produces hapj)iness. 
Those who love Christ can not be imprisoned for 
known crime, and if they suffer wrongfully they can 



258 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

^^ rejoice and be exceeding glad/' because in their trial 
they have the promise^ and are conscious of the pres- 
ence and favor of the chiefest object of their affection. 
The love of their soul is spiritual^ not local and tem- 
poral; Bolts and chains can not exclude spiritual 
objects/*' faith makes them a present entity to the 
mind. 

In furnishing the mind for immortality, then, those 
objects which are spiritual should be treasured as the 
chief good of the soul. The time is coming when 
every mind must live by reflection. Then, the aliment 
upon which it lives will be either temporal or spiritual 
things, according as it has chosen its chief good. If 
Christ be enthroned - in the affections, reflection upon 
his life of merciful labor, his self-sacrifice made in love, 
his lordship in providence, and by his Spirit, as he rules 
and furthers the moral progress of the universe — these 
will furnish, in the immortal state, perpetual aliment 
for the affections, and perpetual exercise for the intelli- 
gence, in analytic and synthetic combinations of the 
great facts in the scheme of mercy developed in the gov- 
ernment of which Christ is the Mediator and the Ad- 
ministrator. 

* Acts, xvi. 25 : " And at midniglit Paul and Silas prayed and sang 
praises." See also Histories of the Persecuted in all Ages, 



GOD IN CHRIST. 259 

THE CONNECTION OF THE PRESENT AND FUTURE STATE, AS CONSTI- 
TUTED BY THE LAW OF SUGGESTION. 

The law of suggestion, or association of ideas, is a 
governing law of the intelligence. Without it there is 
no conscious identity, no logical memory, no ratiocina- 
tion. There can be no such thing as a sane mind de- 
void of this law. The law of cause and effect rules as 
really in the mental as it does in the external phenom- 
enal world. So long as consciousness and memory last, 
the law of suggestion will rule the intelligence, and an 
experience in the soul of the effects of past acts of life 
will bind the mind to a consideration of the cause 
which produced those effects. 

Now we have shown that a soul whose chief treasure 
is on earth will feel a sense of evil and deprivation 
when removed from the things of sense. This mental 
woe must suggest the cause which produced it — the 
acts of a selfish and sinful life. The consequences of 
sins felt in the soul will suggest the sins which caused 
the evil effects which the soul experiences. Thus the 
mind will be doomed, by its own laws, to live in the 
presence of its own sin. Grod's laws are self-executed. 
The circle of unhallowed suggestion is formed by the 
voluntary sins of life. The circle is closed by natural 
death. In this world the consequence of sin is often 



260 THE MANIFESTATION OF 

separated from its cause by the interposition of sensu- 
ous objects^ and by the arrangements of a probationary 
condition. In the world of reflection^ and by the laws 
of reflection^ sin and its consequences are united. The 
sins of life^ by confirming earthly affections and evil 
habits^ unite in a product of spiritual evil in the soul. 

But on the other hand^ when the bonds of sense are 
broken^ and the believer enters the siDiritual world, he 
comes nearer to spiritual objects^ which are his chief 
good ; his joy must thereby be increased. The con- 
sciousness of joy (and it may be^ the more sensible im- 
pressions from the objects of his affections) will suggest 
the cause of the spiritual blessing that refreshes his 
mind. That cause is Christ. The laws of the mental 
nature unite Christ and glory in the sanctified spirit. 
Thus the circle of hallowed suggestion will be closed. 
Christ rules the soul by law^ which makes him ever- 
present with his people ; and^ therefore, while law 
binds the unsanctified spirit to its sins, as to a body of 
death, it binds the believing mind to Christ forever. 
" The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is 
the law : but thanks be to God who giveth us the vic- 
tory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'^ Amen and Amen. 

Thus have we endeavored to exhibit '' the evidence 
of the power, wisdom, and goodness of God ; in the 



GOD IN CHRIST. 261 

first placc^ from considerations independent of written 
Eevelation ; and, in the second place, from the Eevela- 
tion of the Lord Jesus ; and from the whole to point 
out the inferences most necessary and useful to man- 
kind." 

We think we have proved that the God of Nature is 
the God of Grace; — that the Supreme good in God is 
the author of Christianity, and the supreme good in 
man its end. 



ADDENDUM. 

EXCURSES ON" HYPOTHESES ; ESPECIALLY THE HYPOTH- 
ESIS OF PRE-EXISTENCE. 

An hypothesis which has no basis in phenomena^ nor 
any in experience, is a mere speculation which may 
awaken interest by the ingenuity of its argument, or 
by the skill with which the writer selects and uses ma- 
terial in constructing his scheme. Such labor, how- 
ever, can be of but little value in the realm of substan- 
tial thought. Some hypotheses, as mere figments of 
the fancy, may amuse — some, marked by the character- 
istics of an inquiring mind, may elicit thought upon an 
irgportant subject, while some may be suggestive, and 
indicate to other minds trains of ideas which lead in 
the end to the acquisition of real knowledge. 

The hypothesis of creation by law, which we have 
had occasion frequently to notice in the previous pages, 
attempts to save itself from reproach, by giving all the 
veracity which the author can procure, to the facts upon 
which his reasonings are predicated. This is wise, 



ADDENDUM. 263 

because if the foundation be not trustworthy, the su- 
perstructure can not be. 

There are some hypotheses based wholly upon con- 
jecture, and hence their authors do not have any 
trouble either with objective facts or subjective experi- 
ence. A recent work, under the momentous title of 
the Conflict of Ages I by Dr. Edward Beecher, a gen- 
tleman of learning and piety, is a good example of that 
kind of hypothesis which is founded in the conjectures 
of an inquiring mind, and elaborated to fill the signifi- 
cance of its title. 

If w^e could suppose Dr. Beecher to have fallen into the 
vein of Swift, we would be sur^ that the design of his 
book was to awaken the conviction that some of the older 
theologies were conceived in the shadow of a darker age, - 
and can not be maintained in their prima facie inter- 
pretation, without offense to enlightened Christians of , 
the present day. If this be the intention of the book, 
it will aid in accomplishing an end ; whether a bene- 
ficial one or not, it is not our business here to determine. 

There should be some word in our language which 
would stand for those mere creations of the fancy, 
which are often called hypotheses, but which are predi- 
cated entirely upon conjectures. If we were to venture 
an addition to our already teeming vocabulary, wo 
would suggest the composite word pseudo-thesis ^ as a 



264 ADDENDUM. 

proper one to designate this kind of writing. As in 
such cases it is not necessary (or rather, it is not ex2)e- 
dient) to spend any time either with the facts of nature 
or of revelation, a tolerably active imagination might 
frame a pseudo-thesis which would appeal to the reason 
with as much plausibility as that of the excellent 
author of the '^ Conflict of Ages/' 

Let us look at the conflict from another stand-point 
— ascertain the difficulty to be solved, and try the force 
of our new definition. 

We will assume a doctrine taught in the Bible, and 
one which is historically verified in the case of the 
Jews. Children do suffer for the sins of their parents. 
God is the creator and moral ruler of his creatures. 
Man is the creature of his j)Ower, and the subject of his 
providence. Then, if every man comes into the world 
a depraved moral being, and comes into the world at 
such times and in such circumstances as the Creator 
elects, how are the acts of the Creator in punishing 
children for the sins of their parents to be reconciled 
with the principles of ^' honor and right.'' 

Here we postulate owi pseudo-thesis in relation to the 
" Conflict of all Ages." We assume that men are 
created in races. Then each spirit that is created lives 
on upon the earth in successive bodies till the end of 
the race. When one body dies the spirit is transmitted 



ADDENDUM. 265 

into anotlier, and so consecutively for ages. Thus the 
Jews, as their Eabbis, or Doctors of Divinity taught, 
were all created at the same time, and wliile they often 
change bodies, the spirits of the race continue upon the 
earth, the same in number and person. An opinion 
similar to this had not only the suffrage of very vener- 
able and learned men among the ancients, but it is 
countenanced, likewise, by great names of modern 
times. Among these we might mention Herder of 
Weimar. 

Now we shall endeavor to maintain this view of the 
subject, and by it vindicate the Divine government from 
the charges of dishonor and wrong. 

The Jevrs in the days of the Messiah committed 

their fearful sin. A curse came upon them and their 

descendants, and followed them seventeen hundred 

years. Now how shall we reconcile the '^ principles of 

honor and right,'' with the penal providences of God, 

and the facts of history, unless we suppose that the 

same spirits that committed the sin, suffered also the 

penalty ? The reason reluctates — the conscience repels 

the idea that a Jew of the middle ages suffered for the 

sins of others who lived ten centuries before, and with 

whose acts the sufferer had no more connection than he 

had with the sin of Adam ? 

It may be answered that one generation approves of 

12 



266 ADDENDUM. 

all tlie acts of preceding generations of the same race, 
and therefore succeeding generations are guilty, in a 
good sense, for the crimes of those who preceded them. 
But this is not a true averment ; because the Jews have 
not for many centuries believed that their fathers were 
actuated by the motives ascribed to them. But fur- 
thermore, allowing this to be true, the race-feeling is 
not of their own begetting. They did not choose to be 
born after the fact, nor to be born Jews. They had no 
agency in this matter, hence the principles of '^ honor 
and right" are still unsatisfied. If the reader of this 
page had been born a Jew, he would have had the same 
race-feeling which affects them. Who then shall recon- 
cile w^ith the ^^ principles of honor and right," the fact 
that the Jews of the middle ages suffered for the acts 
of their race a thousand years before ? It can be 
done, as we have already said, by assuming the con- 
tinued life of the soul in a series of bodies during the 
whole existence of a race. 

In behalf of this view of the subject, take the fol- 
lowing facts and reasonings : 

(a) The race-feeling continues the same ; the mental 
and moral peculiarities, and prejudices, and proclivities, 
continue the same from generation to generation. 
This proves one of two things, either- that the parents 
transmit their moral qualities to the child, or that a 



ADDENDUM. 267 

spirit fiosscssing the same j)eculicirities lives in the new 
embodiment. Both of these may be true^ because the 
moral peculiarities of the father are the same with 
others of his race. 

(b) The physiognomy of the race in all ages has 
been the same. The seed produces the tree, and not 
the tree the seed^ in all cases after the first : so the soul 
moulds the hody. Each spirit assimilates matter^ and 
produces the conformation and development of its own 
corporiety, in accordance with its own nature. Now, 
the phrenological, physiognomical, and physiological con- 
formation of the Hebrews has been the same in all 
ages. This fact, in its scientific analysis, strikingly 
confirms the opinion that the same race of spirits de- 
velops the successive Jewish generations from age to 
age. 

(c) Our scheme has likewise a more certain founda- 
tion in the Scriptures than any other view of '' The 
Conflict of Ages.'^ In Luke, chap. xi. 51, it is written : 
" From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, 
which perished between the altar and the temple, 
verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this gen- 
eration.'' Now, it is well known that the Jews recog- 
nize Abel as one of the progenitors of their race. And 
as ^^ Nott and Gliddon'' have intimated that Adam (or 
an Adam) was father of the Jews, we have therefore 



268 ADDENDUM. 

their authority on this point (and, as coicrtesy and vwd- 
esty are always characteristics of profound and trust- 
worthy thinkers, the authority of these philosophers 
should be weighed). 

Now, as doctors of divinity among the Jews held the 
opinion that the spirits of the Jews were the same in 
all generations, is not this passage in Matthew, which 
speaks according to the usus loquendi of the times, a 
distinct authorization of our views ? 

We may, then, affirm our pseiido-t\i.Q^\^ to be a true 
%j9othesis, predicated, not only on a scientific, but a - 
scriptural basis ; hence we infer that the retribution 
which fell upon the Jews, for many ages, was the 
desert of their moral transgressions, committed in 
pre-existing bodies. 

' (d) But the historico-moral argument for this 
scheme of vindicating " honor and right '' in Divine 
Provideiice, has a force even more conclusive than 
some of the considerations before mentioned. 

It is one of the doctrines of religion, which is abund- 
antly supported by profane history, that nations do 
suffer in this world the consequences of their national 
sins. But those who suffer the penalty are generally 
separated many generations from those who perpetrat- 
ed the evil for which the nation is punished. Now we 
submit the question to Dr. Beecher and the many re- 



I 



ADDENDUM. 269 

spectable theologians of his school^ how are the priiici- 
j:)les of honor and riglit to be vindicated if the penalty 
does not fall upon the criminals, hut upon those who 
did not sin with them, nor fall with them, in the acts 
which corrupted the nation, and brought the penalty 
due to preceding generations upon the last one ? The 
men have been dead a thousand years who p)erpetrate(l 
the first transgression, and it was their example and 
influence which encouraged the sins of their successors ; 
unless, therefore, this last generation are personally 
guilty for the sins of the first generations, who induced 
the penalty, how can Dr. B. or any body else, vindi- 
cate Providence upon the principles of ^^ honor and 
right ?'' But if the last generations were personally 
interested in the first transgressions — if they lived i7i 
their progenitors, and sinned tvith them in all their 
offenses, then they deserve to suffer personally the pen- 
alty for all the past. Thus, by our joseudo-ihesis, the 
principles of honor and right in Providence are vindi- 
cated, and the '^ Conflict of Ages" adjusted, forever — 
or, if not forever^ we think we have said enough to 
secure an armistice, at least, during the present cen- 
tury. ;■ 
But whether the grand conflict be issued or not, 
arguments do not fail us in support of our proposi- 
tion : 



270 ADDENDUM. 

It is a principle of revelation, supported also by the 
spirit of human legislation in all ages, that sin should 
be repaid in kind : '^ Whatsoever measure ye meet 
shall be meeted unto you'' — '^ He that taketh the 
sword shall fall by the sword." Now, providential 
judgments upon races are often strikingly in accord- 
ance with this principle. As an instance, take the 
case of the Spaniards, under Cortez and his compiraies. 
They slew with the sword the ancient Mexicans, '^ con- 
quered a peace,'' and appropriated their lands and 
wealth. The posterity of the conquerors established 
themselves in^ the country. Centuries pass ; the con- 
querors still reign over their conquered possessions. 
But now Grod raises up another race against those 
ancient aggressors, and they suffer (^. e., the old 
Spaniards in neiv bodies suffer) the same penalty 
which they had inflicted upon the Mexicans. They 
fall by the sword ; and their territory is wrested from 
them upon the same principles which governed them 
when they wrested the same soil from the Aztecs. 

Thus the principles of honor and right are vindicated 
by our pjseudo-t\iQ^h in another form. We hope the 
author of the '' Conflict" will himself accept this view, 
as it is not predicated in conjecture, but upon facts 
drawn from history, science, and Scripture. 

We concede that one of the same objections may be 



I 



ADDENDUM. 271 

alleged against our view of the '^ Conflict'' which meets 
the scheme of Dr. B. As man has no consciousness 
of having sinned in a preceding world, or in a preced- 
ing body, and as it is the effort of the author of the 
'' Conflict'' to reconcile the j)rinciples of honor and 
right, as asserted hy conscience and reason^ with the 
divine proceeding, it is difficult to see how the reconcil- 
iation is to be effected, while the penalty is inflicted 
where no consciousness of demerit exists. 

But, in answer to this objection, our scheme has at 
least one hypothesis on its side. The author pf the 
'^ Vestiges of the History of Creation" has, as he sup- 
poses, shown that the whole series of species which 
comprise the creation are one — that man is the comple- 
ment of all ; or, at least, that he is the head of the 
series. Now, as man has only in this age, by the aid 
of this author, reached the knowledge that he existed 
in past ages in the form of a shark, and thence up- 
ward to a baboon, and finally to a man, this conclusion, 
reached by this hypothesis, is against Dr. B.'s theory, 
but not against ours. If man came up from the gloha- 
tor volvoXj through an evolving series of advancing 
species, then it is evident he did not sin as man in an- 
other state of existence. If men sinned at all in a 
former state of existence, it must have been as reptilia, 
or some other order of the lower carnivora. 



272 ADDENDUM. 

Now^ as the development theory has more fdcts of a 
certain sort to support it than the pro-existence theory, 
we hold it to be proved that our existence as sharks in 
a former state is more probable than our pro-existence 
as sinners,/, e. d. 

In conclusion, may v/e be permitted to offer a serious 
suggestion to the writers of our day/-*' who are anxious 
to vindicate the Divine character from all complicity 
with the origin of evil. It is to be regretted that good 
men should lose time and labor on such questions ; but 
this they will do, while thej^ admit into the discussion 
definitions and dogmata which are untrue both to 
science and revelation. If imperfection and evil are the 
same thing, having various relations, then all that is 
necessary to vindicate the Divine character is to reveal 
the Divine plan, and show the perfect end to which the 
creation is advancing. The origin of physical and 
moral evil (if we must assume such evils to exist) con- 
sists in those imperfections which exist in a process 
before it has reached maturity. To those whose minds 
can apprehend the perfect, there will appear evils in 
the present state of things. Man was made to per- 
ceive the future perfect, and to struggle for its attain- 



* We do no more than justice to this class of writers when we say, 
that in it are often found ^ood and able minds. 



ADDENDUM. 2/3 

meiit. To him a sense of evil is good^ because it is 
necessary in tlie nature of tilings to stimulate to moral 
advancement^ and in beings where there is no sense of 
evil^ the evil exists only as imperfection belongs to a 
process which has not reached maturity. 



3kll 



jT 



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